Work

The 10-Step Cross-cultural Equivalence Process for Developing Measures for Culturally Informed Research

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We describe a comprehensive ten step process for choosing and adapting existing scales or questionnaires to the Somali language for the Our Body Our Health (OBOH) study. The OBOH study aims to examine sexual pain, coping with pain, sexual health, and decision-making in a sample of Somali women living in the United States and have experienced female genital cutting (FGC). We describe how we used existing guidelines for construct equivalence, semantic equivalence, technical equivalence and translation, while also expanding on these guidelines by engaging community members through a variety of mechanisms. We also used an iterative process where decisions were made, refined, and sometimes overturned as we gathered more community driven feedback. Through this process we adapted 11 scales, created three questionnaires, and translated all. We considered five other scales and describe the reasons we did not use them for the final survey. Finally, we present lessons learned and recommendations for other researchers.

Source: Journal of Participatory Research Methods

DOI: 10.35844/001c.144211

Authors: Jennifer J. Connor, Zahra Sheik, Shannon Pergament, Cawo Abdi, Crista E. Johnson-Agbakwu, Beatrice B. E. Robinson

Institutions: University of Minnesota, UMass Memorial Health Care, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Language: English

Topic: Health Education and Validation

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development