Generalizability of interest structure to China: Application of the Personal Globe Inventory

Two Chinese samples of the high school students (N=721) and the college students (N=943) were administered a translated version of the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI, Tracey, 2002), and the responses were examined with respect to their structure. Results of separate factor analyses demonstrated that there were three substantive factors: People/Things, Data/Ideas, and Prestige, similar to the structure of the PGI. The fit of the data to the PGI spherical model and the circular model of eight and six (i.e., RIASEC) types were examined using the randomized test of hypothesized order relations. The results demonstrated that the spherical model and the eight-type model fit the Chinese data equally well as data from the United States. However, unlike the Japanese results, Holland's six-type model fit the data as well as the eight-type model in the present study. No structure differences were found in the high school and the college samples or across gender within the high school and the college samples. The results support the structural validity of the PGI in Chinese applications.