Lost in Translation: Methodological Considerations in Cross-Cultural Research

In cross-cultural child development research there is often a need to translate instruments and instructions to languages other than English. Typically, the translation process focuses on ensuring linguistic equivalence. However, establishment of linguistic equivalence through translation techniques...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 2007-07, Vol.78 (4), p.1255-1264
Main Author: Pena, Elizabeth D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Children
Cross Cultural Studies
Cross-cultural analysis
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Data Interpretation
Developmental psychology
Empirical Articles
Equivalence
Equivalence relation
Ethnolinguistics
Family studies
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Guidelines as Topic
Hispanics
Humans
Interpretive Skills
Item Analysis
Language
Language translation
Languages
Linguistics
Methodology
Miscellaneous
Psycholinguistics
Psychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Reproducibility of Results
Research Methodology
Research methods
Research Problems
Social values
Sociological research
Translating
Translation
Translations
Validity
Words
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Description
Summary:In cross-cultural child development research there is often a need to translate instruments and instructions to languages other than English. Typically, the translation process focuses on ensuring linguistic equivalence. However, establishment of linguistic equivalence through translation techniques is often not sufficient to guard against validity threats. In addition to linguistic equivalence, functional equivalence, cultural equivalence, and metric equivalence are factors that need to be considered when research methods are translated to other languages. This article first examines cross-cultural threats to validity in research. Next, each of the preceding factors is illustrated with examples from the literature. Finally, suggestions for incorporating each factor into research studies of child development are given.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01064.x