Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), International Pilot Study on Non-Cognitive Skills

This online survey was designed to test the measurement properties of nine personality scales – the Big Five, Traditionalism, Self-Control, Self-Efficacy, Honesty/Integrity, Socio-Emotional skills, Intellectual Curiosity, Job Orientation Preferences and Vocational Interests. Eight of these nine scales are existing scales (or combinations of scales) available for use in public domain. The scale assessing socio-emotional skills was developed by an expert group . The full formulations of items in all scales are presented in the attached excel file.

Design of the online survey

The online survey was designed with following objectives:
1) Testing the measurement characteristics of selected scales;
2) Testing the cross national comparability of selected scales.

Background questionnaire

In order to examine the analytic potential (and policy relevance) of the selected personality measures, the survey included a number of socio-demographic and economic and personal wellbeing indicators as well as a short cognitive ability test.
In particular, it includes:
Socio-demographic characteristics: Gender, age, country of birth, mother tongue, marital status, educational attainment, and parental education.
Economic and wellbeing indicators: Broad activity status, occupational status, subjective health, social trust, life satisfaction, and personal wellbeing.
Quality control questions: In order to check the quality of the response data, the survey included three quality control items placed within the Big Five, Self-Control, and Socio-Emotional skills scales. These were later used, along other indicators of data quality, for the creation of an overall quality control indicator and removal of poor quality responses.