Structure of the university personality inventory for chinese college students

The University Personality Inventory, a mental health instrument for college students, is frequently used for screening in China. However, its unidimensionality has been questioned. This study examined its dimensions to provide more information about the specifi c mental problems for students at risk. Four subsamples were randomly created from a sample (N = 6,110; M age = 19.1 yr.) of students at a university in China. Principal component analysis with Promax rotation was applied on the fi rst two subsamples to explore dimension of the inventory. Confi rmatory factor analysis was conducted on the third subsample to verify the exploratory dimensions. Finally, the identifi ed factors were compared to the Symptom Checklist–90 (SCL–90) to support validity, and sex diff erences were examined, based on the fourth subsample. Five factors were identifi ed: Physical Symptoms Cognitive Symptoms, Emotional Vulnerability, Social Avoidance, and Interpersonal Sensitivity, accounting for 60.3% of the variance. All the fi ve factors were signifi - cantly correlated with the SCL-90. Women scored signifi cantly higher than men on Cognitive Symptoms and Interpersonal Sensitivity.