ABSTRACT
Objective Based on the Chinese full version of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis Pisa Paris and San Diego-Auto questionnaire ( TEMPS-A) , we aimed to validated a short version of TEMPS-A for Chinese adoles-cents.Methods Taking into account the item factor loading from our previously validated full version TEMPS-A, cultur-ally-determined items, and sexual activity related items, we derived a 60-item Chinese TEMPS-A for adolescents.The internal consistency and structural validity of the Chinese TEMPS-A for adolescents was evaluated in 822 participants aged 11~17 years old.Results The Cronbach’ s alphas coefficients for depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious subscales were 0.67, 0.78, 0.76, 0.77 and 0.83, respectively.The anxious, irritable, hyperthymic factors were effectively distinguished by exploratory factor analysis, while the depressive and cyclothymic factors tended to correlate.The males scored significantly higher on the hyperthymic subscale than the females [(5.407 ±2.842) vs.(4.852 ±2.963), P<0.01].The females scored significantly higher on the depressive [(3.521 ±2.221) vs.(3.144 ±2.295)], cyclothy-mic [(4.484 ±2.922) vs.(3.917 ±2.823)] and anxious [(5.236 ±3.719) vs.(4.366 ±3.658)] temperaments than the males ( P<0.05) .The scores of depressive subscale and cyclothymic temperaments subscale were significantly correla-ted (r=0.625, P<0.001), so did the scores of anxious subscale and irritable temperament subscale (r=0.628, P<0.001).Conclusions The Chinese Adolescent version of TEMPS-A is a reliable and valid instrument for investigating af-fective temperaments for adolescents.