Increasing the Validity of Cross-Cultural Assessments: Use of Improved Methods for Test Adaptations 1Laboratory of Psychometric and Evaluative Research Report No.275. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, School of Education. Paper presented at the 23rd International Congress of Applied Psychology, Madrid, 1994.

Abstract

Translating or adapting psychological and educational tests from one language and culture to other languages and cultures has been a common practice for almost a hundred years, beginning with Binet's test of intelligence. Despite the long history and the many good reasons for adapting tests, proper methods for conducting test adaptations and establishing score equivalence are not well known by psychologists. The purpose of this paper is to focus attention on judgmental and statistical methods and procedures for adapting tests with special focus on procedures for identifying poorly adapted items. When these methods are correctly applied, the validity of any cross-cultural uses of the adapted test should be increased.