Cross-cultural translation and adaptation of the Danish version of the brief version of the 10-item Big Five Inventory

BACKGROUND: Personality traits are associated with pain-related beliefs and coping strategies, and different chronic conditions are linked through specific personality profiles. This highlights the importance of having valid and reliable measures of personality traits for use in clinical and research settings when assessing patients in chronic pain.

PURPOSE: To translate and cross-culturally adapt the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10) into Danish.

METHODS: A bilingual expert panel (N = 4) and a panel of laymen (N = 8) translated and culturally adapted the questionnaire into Danish. Face validity was evaluated in a group of persons suffering from recurring or ongoing painful conditions (N = 9). Data were collected to evaluate the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and factor structure (N = 96).

RESULTS: Some of the participants in the lay panel considered the questionnaire too short, considering its aim of assessing personality. Acceptable internal consistency was found for two out of five subscales (0.78 for both Extraversion and Neuroticism), while the internal consistency was non-acceptable for the remaining subscales (0.17-0.45). Test-retest reliability was acceptable for three subscales (0.80 for Neuroticism, 0.84 for Conscientiousness, and 0.85 for Extraversion). Assumptions for determining the factor structure were not met and therefore was this analysis omitted.

DISCUSSION: Although face valid, only two out of five subscales had acceptable internal consistency and only three subscales had acceptable test-retest reliability. These findings indicate that interpreting findings regarding personality using the Danish BFI-10 should be done with caution.