Abstract: This study explored two major issues in personality assessment: Cultural universality versus cultural relevance in personality assessment, and the stability and change of personality structure from adolescence to adulthood. Current personality theories and assessment have focused on adults. Growing interests in adolescent mental health and the emerging field of life-span personality development have led to an expansion of approaches in the personality assessment of adolescents. Early experiences in cross-cultural assessment showed that the importation of well-established and comprehensive Western personality inventories for adults and adolescents provided local psychologists with a wealth of research database for their applications. However, the "import and test" approach has been criticized for the imposition of universal (etic) personality dimensions and the inadequate attention paid to indigenous (emic) personality dimensions that would provide a fuller understanding of personality in the local context. In the context of personality assessment in Chinese culture, the emic-etic debate focuses on two questions: 1) Are imposed etic personality dimensions universally applicable? 2) Are there dimensions that are important in the understanding of personality in the local culture that are left out by the Western measures?
The Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI-2) was developed using a combined emic-etic approach to cover both universal and indigenous personality constructs. This paper reported the standardization study of the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory – Adolescent Version (CPAI-A). The normative sample consisted of 2,646 students (1446 females, 1200 males) from 21 secondary schools and 43 non-student adolescents (13 females, 30males) from 11 youth centers in Hong Kong. The ages of the total sample ranged from 12 to 18 (M=15.23, SD=1.72). The internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the CPAI-A scales were examined in the study. The factor structure of the CPAI-A was tested through both EFA and CFA procedures.
The results indicated that the CPAI-A was statistically reliable among adolescents in Hong Kong. The factor structure of personality measured by the CPAI-A included four factors for the 25 normal personality scales (Social Potency/Expansiveness, Emotional Stability, Interpersonal Relatedness, and Dependability), and two factors for the 14 clinical scales (Emotional Problem and Behavioral Problem). Through a comparison between the CPAI-2 and CPAI-A, we reported the changes in the scales included in the adolescent version, and investigated the similarities and differences in personality structure between adolescence and adulthood. The results basically supported the stability of personality structure from adolescence to adulthood. However, there were specific personality features which distinguished adolescents from adults.
The CPAI-A provides a comprehensive instrument for normal and clinical assessment of adolescents in the Chinese cultural context. The contributions of the combined emic-etic approach adopted in the development of the CPAI-A over traditional methods of personality assessment were demonstrated in the study

Key words: personality, assessment, emic-etic approach, CPAI-A, Hong Kong Adolescents