Structure of interest in a Caribbean sample: Application of the Personal Globe Inventory

•Examined the structural validity of the Personal Globe Inventory in a Caribbean sample.•The RIASEC six-type model fits the data exceptionally well.•The eight-type model also exhibited good fit to the data.•The spherical model, which assesses level of prestige, exhibited significant but poor fit.•No structural differences were found between gender and nationality.

The structural validity of the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI, Tracey, 2002) as applied to a Caribbean sample of university students in Jamaica (N = 103) and Trinidad (N = 118) was examined. The fit of the data to Holland's six-type RIASEC, the PGI eight-type model, and the PGI spherical structure was examined using the randomized test of hypothesized order relations. The results demonstrated that the circular structure (i.e. RIASEC and the eight-type model), unlike the spherical structure, fits the Caribbean data well. No structural differences were found between gender and nationality. Further examination of the cultural perception of prestige in a Caribbean sample is warranted. Overall, the results support the structural validity of the PGI in Caribbean applications.