Linguistic validation of a battery for measurement of affirming attitudes about mental illness

Abstract

IntroductionStigma restrains the life opportunities of individuals with serious mental illness. This study aimed at performing a linguistic validation of a battery for measurement of affirming attitudes; a battery that might be used to test the impact of anti-stigma and socially inclusive programs.MethodsThree measures were considered: the Recovery Scale, Empowerment Scale and Self-Determination Scale. Two native Arabic speakers, bilingual in English, independently translated the original measures into Arabic. A collaborative pooled version of the questionnaires was then obtained from the two translations. The pooled version was back-translated into English by a professional translator. A draft Arabic version of the battery was obtained from the comparison between the original questionnaires and the back-translation and was tested on 30 Arabic-speaking medical students. We also discussed the existence of other wording that enables the meaning of statements to be expressed clearly.ResultsThe test of the different items allowed the detection of three typing errors. It also highlighted mistranslating two terms to one term that does not distinguish between them in term of the meaning: “Goal” and “Purpose”. Comments were reported on the wording of certain items in the questionnaire. These comments referred to the problems related to the grammatical and syntactical construction of certain expressions. The translation from English into Tunisian dialect is different from our dialect.ConclusionWe proposed an Arabic version of a battery of measures that reflect affirming attitudes. This is a step for reliable measures that assess stigma in Arabic countries.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.