Participants completed the self-report questionnaire at home or at a participating institution. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory [NEO-PI-R, [31]] consists of 240 items answered on a five-point Likert format ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The NEO-PI-R assesses 30 facets, six for each dimension of the FFM (see Table 2 for a listing of the 30 facet scales). Raw scores were standardized as T-scores (M = 50, SD = 10) using combined-sex adult norms reported in the Manual [31]. The NEO-PI-R has been translated into several languages and used in more than 50 cultures [12]. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity is presented in the Manual [31], and a large literature demonstrates cross-observer agreement and prediction of external criteria such as psychological well-being, health risk behaviors, educational and occupational achievements, coping mechanisms, and longevity [31,32]. In a previous study [33] we tested the validity of personality assessment in the ECA sample and found adequate alpha reliabilities, retest-stability, and factor structure of the NEO-PI-R scales.
