Toward A Culture-Sensitive Approach To Playfulness Research: Development Of The Adult Playfulness Trait Scale-Chinese Version And An Alternative Measurement Model

The growing global interest in playfulness research calls for increasing research cross-pollination that often necessitates instrument translation with cultural sensitivity. Taking a collaborative and iterative translation approach, we developed a Chinese version of the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale-an instrument originally developed and validated in North America and increasingly used in international applications. Reliability and structural validity of the translated scale were examined using data from a national adult sample of Chinese adults (N = 1561). The results confirmed the scale's composite reliability and a common playfulness factor shared by four sub-dimensions. Higher-order confirmatory factor analyses validated via split-sample testing revealed a distinct factorial configuration, indicating culture-specific characteristics in Chinese participants' cognitive organization of the construct-particularly the critical role of a free, non-conforming attribute in the expression of playfulness in Chinese society. Underlying cultural causes are discussed as are implications for cultural adaptation of translated instruments and cross-cultural playfulness research.