Cultural adaptation in measuring common client characteristics with an urban Mainland Chinese sample

• Published in: Psychotherapy research 2015-07, Vol.25 (4), p.473-483
• Main Authors: Song, Xiaoxia, Anderson, Timothy, Beutler, Larry E., Sun, Shijin, Wu, Guohong, Kimpara, Satoko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acting Out; Adult; China; Chinese sample; client characteristics; Cross-Cultural Comparison; cross-cultural psychology; Cultural Competency; culture and psychotherapy; Depression - diagnosis; Depression - psychology; Discriminant analysis; Ethnopsychology; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Middle Aged; Problem Behavior - psychology; Psychometrics; Psychotherapy; Social Support; Stress, Psychological - diagnosis; Stress, Psychological - psychology; STS; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; Urban Population
• ISSN: 1050-3307; 1468-4381
• DOI: 10.1080/10503307.2014.913322

Objectives: This study aimed to develop a culturally adapted version of the Systematic Treatment Selection-Innerlife (STS) in China. Methods: A total of 300 nonclinical participants collected from Mainland China and 240 nonclinical US participants were drawn from archival data. A Chinese version of the STS was developed, using translation and back-translation procedures. After confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the original STS sub scales failed on both samples, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was then used to access whether a simple structure would emerge on these STS treatment items. Parallel analysis and minimum average partial were used to determine the number of factor to retain. Results: Three cross-cultural factors were found in this study, Internalized Distress, Externalized Distress and interpersonal relations. Conclusions: This supported that regardless of whether one is in presumably different cultural contexts of the USA or China, psychological distress is expressed in a few basic channels of internalized distress, externalized distress, and interpersonal relations, from which different manifestations in different culture were also discussed.