Purpose: The validity and reliability of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was established in the original American version and in different cultures [1]. The TCI was translated into several languages including Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, etc. To our knowledge, there is no study of the TCI in the Arabic language. The objective of the present study was to translate and validate the psychometric characteristics of the Cloninger's TCI, into colloquial Moroccan Arabic language which could be used in most of Northern African countries, such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Mauritania. Methods: Two hundreds medical students filled in the questionnaire. The sample included 65 men (32.5%) and 135 women (67.5%), representative of the gender distribution among the students. The subjects were between 21 and 26 years of age. The mean age for men was 24.4 years (SD=2.5) and for women was 23.5 years (SD = 1.6). They fullfilled the questionnaire on a one session basis in classroom and were not paid for their participation. The statistical analyses were performed using the Pearson correlation coefficient, the principal components analyses and the Cronbach's a coefficient. The original version of the TCI by Cloninger was used [2], including 226 items. The four dimensions of temperament in the TCI include Novelty Seeking (NS, 40 items, Harm Avoidance (HA, 35 items), Reward Dependence (RD, 24 items), and Persistence (P, 8 items). The three character dimensions include Self-Determination (SD, 44 items), Cooperativeness (C, 42 items), and Self-Transcendence (ST, 33 items). Results: The mean values of the TCI in the present study are similar to those found in the original American study, except for the Harm avoidance, Reward Dependence, Persistence, Self Transcendence dimensions. The differences found in the present study regarding gender were similar to the original version of the TCI which found higher scores in Novelty Seeking for men and higher scores in Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, Cooperativeness and Self Transcendance for women. Factorial analysis of Temperament had identified two factors corresponding to HA and NS dimensions of Cloninger theoretical model, meaning that they remained homogeneous in spite of the translation. The present study found Cronbach alpha coefficients between 0.72 and 0.84 for all dimensions, except for dimensions of Reward Dependence (0.42) and Persistence (0.40), which remained heterogeneous. Regarding internal structure, the highest correlations were found between dimensions HA and SD (r=-0.52; p<0.01); and between C and SD (r= 0.49; p<0.01). Less important correlations were found between RD and C (r=0.33; p<0.01) and between RD and ST (r=0.29; p<0.01). Conclusions: The mean values of the Arabic Moroccan colloquial version of TCI were similar to those found in the original Cloninger original American study version and versions in other languages, except for some dimensions. Internal structure was consistent with previous studies. Factorial analysis of Temperament had identified two factors corresponding to the HA and NS dimensions of the Cloninger theoretical model. Regarding internal consistency, the values were satisfying for all dimensions, except for the dimensions RD and P.

El Mahfoudi I, Dervaux A, Agoub M, Pelissolo A, Laqueille X, Moussaoui D, et al. Reliability and validity of an Arabic Moroccan colloquial language version of the Temperament and Character Inventory. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 2011;21:S339-S40.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0924-977X(11)70540-5