Chinese Big Five Personality Adjective Scale — Short Form

Luo Jie and Dai Xiaoyang developed the BFFP-CAS in 2015 for Chinese adolescents and young adults. It uses pairs of opposing adjectives, such as quiet–talkative, for an intuitive format suited to younger respondents. It has only 20 items and takes about five minutes. Its norms are based on Chinese young people, supporting more appropriate interpretation. University samples show good reliability and validity, with alpha coefficients of 0.719–0.849 and test–retest reliability of 0.766–0.889. It measures Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), Neuroticism (N), and Openness (O).

Each item pairs opposite descriptions, such as quiet–talkative or anxious–calm, with six response positions. Choose the position that best fits your usual behavior: 1 = entirely like the left description, 2 = mostly like the left, 3 = slightly more like the left, 4 = slightly more like the right, 5 = mostly like the right, and 6 = entirely like the right. For quiet–talkative, choose 6 if you are very talkative, 5 if fairly talkative, or 4 if slightly more talkative than quiet. The format is intuitive, reduces social desirability bias, and is suited to how adolescents understand and respond to questions. Answer honestly based on typical behavior without overthinking.

Each of the five dimensions has four items rated from 1 to 6, for a score of 4–24. Neuroticism items 4, 9, 14, and 19 are reverse-scored because their left-hand descriptions are negative, such as anxious or worried. Raw scores are converted to percentages: 80–100% is very high, 60–79% moderately high, 40–59% moderate, 20–39% moderately low, and 0–19% very low. High Extraversion suggests talkativeness, activity, and sociability; high Agreeableness suggests trust, candor, and generosity; high Conscientiousness suggests organization, resolve, and persistence; high Neuroticism suggests emotional instability and anxiety that warrant attention; high Openness suggests exploration, innovation, and open-mindedness.

The BFFP-CAS was designed mainly for secondary school and university students, particularly ages 12–25. It suits brief school screening, career planning, self-understanding, and assessment alongside youth counseling. Compared with adult tools such as the CBF-PI, it uses simpler paired adjectives, content closer to young people's lives, youth-based norms, and a shorter format suited to shorter attention spans. Adults over 25 are advised to choose tools such as CBF-PI-B or CBF-PI-15 for more accurate results.

Yes. Traits remain changeable during adolescence and shift with development and experience. Ages 12–18 are especially important, with considerable change. Neuroticism is generally higher during adolescence and declines in adulthood; conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to increase with age. Extraversion and openness are relatively stable but may decline slightly. Family upbringing, school experiences, peers, and major events influence development. Education, counseling, and deliberate growth can build positive traits. Consider reassessing annually. Parents and teachers should offer guidance and support rather than attach fixed labels.

A Neuroticism score of 80% or above suggests emotional instability, anxiety, and worry that need attention and support. Parents and teachers can offer reassurance, create a safe and stable environment, avoid excessive criticism or pressure, teach emotional regulation, and look for bullying or academic stress. Young people can practice deep breathing or mindfulness, develop enjoyable interests, keep regular sleep and moderate exercise, and talk with someone trusted. Seek professional help if anxiety or depression seriously affects study and daily life, if sleep, appetite, or social withdrawal become problematic, or if difficulties last more than two weeks. Counseling may offer CBT and emotional regulation work to improve mental health and reduce neuroticism.

Personality traits are not inherently good or bad, but professional counseling may help when Neuroticism is very high (≥80%) with clear anxiety, depression, or loss of emotional control; Conscientiousness is very low (≤20%) and basic schoolwork becomes unmanageable; a serious mismatch between personality and circumstances causes persistent adjustment difficulties, such as forced extensive socializing for an extremely reserved person; results cause distress or self-doubt; or behavior patterns seriously affect development. Counselors can support understanding and acceptance, teach adaptive coping, offer trait-focused training when needed, and address related mental health problems. The BFFP-CAS cannot replace professional diagnosis and should not be used to label young people.