Structure and Cross-Cultural Invariance of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II in Adults from Five Countries

Quispe-Callo G.; Ramos-Vera C.; Tan C.-S.; Saintila J. · SAGE Open (2025) · DOI: 10.1177/21582440251383600

Resumen

Curiosity, relevant in multiple phenomena, must be accurately assessed and without cultural or gender bias for its analysis in the university population. This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II (CEI-II) in university students from five countries in Oceania, Asia, and Latin America. A sample of 1,540 students from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Peru, aged 18 years and older (M = 24.6, SD = 8.5). Men accounted for 25.6% and women for 74.4%. The CEI-II with 10 items was used. Two structural equation models were tested to evaluate the instrument's structural validity: a two-factor correlated model and a bifactor model. Internal consistency analysis and cross-cultural and gender invariance, and network analysis were performed to compare manifestations of curiosity between genders and their association with the trait of openness. The bifactor model demonstrated superior fit indices (CFI = .998, TLI = .996, RMSEA = .032, SRMR = .028) compared to the two-factor correlated model, confirming its structural validity and internal consistency. There was invariance between countries and sex, allowing valid comparisons. Males exhibited greater manifestation of curiosity. In addition, a significant relationship was found between curiosity and trait openness. The CEI-II proved to be a tool with adequate psychometric properties to assess curiosity in university students from different regions. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa; Universidad César Vallejo; Universidad Señor de Sipán