Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the children's exposure to domestic violence scale (CEDV) from English to Swahili

Abstract

Most scales developed to assess childhood developmental outcomes are western-based and are written in the English language. This study aimed at translating and cross-culturally adapting the CEDV scale from English to Swahili to meet the social-cultural context of Tanzania and to enable Tanzanian children to effectively associate their exposure to inter-parental violence. The study was conducted in Iringa, Southern Tanzania, involving a sample of 247 i.e., 236 children (9–12-year-olds) and 11 adult participants. The adults comprised seven translators, a clinical psychologist, a childhood assessment expert, and two primary school teachers who were involved in translation work and adaptation evaluation workshops; selected using purposive and snowball techniques. Furthermore, a sub-final Swahili CEDV version was pretested with 10 purposively selected bilingual school-based child participants using cognitive interviews; while a survey with 210 randomly selected school children pilot tested a final CEDV Swahili measure. A 40-item Swahili CEDV scale, with good internal consistency (Ω = 0.89) emerged. Further testing of the Swahili CEDV for its validity is warranted to allow researchers and clinicians to be availed a measurement scale that is culturally relevant, reliable and valid for assessing Swahili speaking children’s exposures to inter-parental violence.