Cross-cultural Construct Validity Research Articles

Teacher job satisfaction across 38 countries and economies: An alignment optimization approach to a cross-cultural mean comparison

The purpose of this study is to compare latent means of job satisfaction across participating countries in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey. The mean comparison of this nature is sparse in the literature due to lack of cross-cultural construct validity of job satisfaction scales. We applied an alignment approach that can optimize this construct validity to compare the latent mean of 153,682 teachers across 48 countries. We found that Austria, Chile, Spain, Canada, and Argentina form the top countries with highly job-satisfied teachers while the least job-satisfied teachers are from Bulgaria, England, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Malta. Our findings provide potential cues to policymakers/education stakeholders on which country to emulate such that teacher job satisfaction can be improved.

Measuring Hope Among Children Affected by Armed Conflict: Cross-Cultural Construct Validity of the Children's Hope Scale.

We investigated the cross-cultural construct validity of hope, a factor associated with mental health protection and promotion, using the Children's Hope Scale (CHS). The sample ( n = 1,057; 48% girls) included baseline data from three cluster-randomized controlled trials with children affected by armed conflict ( n = 329 Burundi; n = 403 Indonesia; n = 325 Nepal). The confirmatory factor analysis in each country indicated good fit for the hypothesized two-factor model. Analysis by gender indicated that configural invariance was supported and that scalar invariance was demonstrated in Indonesia. However, metric and scalar invariance were not supported in Burundi and Nepal. In country comparisons, configural and metric invariance were met, but scalar invariance was not supported. Evidence from this study supports the use of the CHS within various sociocultural settings and across genders, but direct comparisons of CHS scores across groups should be done with caution. Rigorous evaluations of the measurement properties of mental health protective and promotive factors are necessary to inform both research and practice.

Comparability of the Social Behavior Inventory in English and Dutch

The Social Behavior Inventory (SBI) assesses social behaviors along the 2 orthogonal axes defining the interpersonal circumplex; that is, in terms of quarrelsomeness–agreeableness and dominance–submissiveness. To contribute to evidence evaluating the cross-cultural construct validity of the SBI, we investigated whether there are differences in how English-speaking students living in Canada and Dutch-speaking students living in The Netherlands view the SBI items. Results suggested there is similarity in the meaning of the items in the 2 cultures. The location of the original English SBI items on the 2 axes of the interpersonal circumplex was generally as expected. Similar results were found for a Dutch translation of the SBI. Differences occurred primarily along the dominance–submissiveness axis and could be explained by cultural differences in men's focus on power.

Measuring Work Related Quality of Life and Affective Well-being in Turkey

The prime purpose of this research wass to test the cross cultural construct validity and the reliability of the Work Related Quality of Life (WRQoL) scale developed by Van Laar and colleagues (2007) and Job Related Affective Well-being Scale by Sevastos (1996). 288 employees participated in the study from a range different occupational backgrounds. The employees had a mean age of 34.25 years and average work experience of 12.17 years. 52.1% of the participants were men. Three items needed to be removed from WRQoL according to the CFA results and the new structure for Turkish version of the WRQoL consisted of 20 items and 6 factors with acceptable to good fit indices. Job related affective well-being scale showed a consistent factor and item structure with the Turkish sample indicated by good fit indices. All sub-scales and scales showed significant correlations. We might consider that the 20 item WRQoL and 12 item job related affective well-being scae are both valid and reliable in a Turkish context.

Reliability and Validity of the Thai “Global Person Generated Index”, an Individualised Measure of Quality of Life

The “Global Person Generated Index” (GPGI) is an individualised measure of global quality of life (QoL). Individualised measures have been used within a health context, however until recently have been rarely used to explore global QoL. This paper establishes the GPGI’s validity and reliability in Thailand. Data were collected from participants in two sites in Northeast Thailand. Participants completed the Thai GPGI, the “Satisfaction with Life Scale”(SWLS), a modified “Positive and Negative Affect Scale” (PANAS) and provided demographic data. 81 participants provided data at T1. 70 participants completed data for test-retest (two week interval) reliability comparisons. Test-retest reliability correlation was 0.678 (p < 0.001) for participants reporting no change in QoL. GPGI correlated moderately with SWLS (0.381, p < 0.01) and PANAS scales (0.291 and −0.378, both p < 0.01), indicating validity. GPGI scores were related to health and correlated to a moderate degree with income (0.379, p < 0.05). GPGI scores did not show the expected differences in scores based on gender, although this may be owing to cultural issues. Areas nominated as important to QoL included family, money, house, health and employment, which mirrors items on other QoL scales and previous work with individualised measures. The Thai GPGI is reliable for group comparisons and valid. The difficulties of designing cross-cultural construct validity hypotheses are acknowledged. Areas nominated as important to QoL were diverse and largely asset based. The GPGI is recommended for use to explore global QoL and potentially useful for needs assessment and exploration of response shift.

Validity and cultural equivalence of the standard Greene Climacteric Scale in Hong Kong

The aim of this study was to translate the standard Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS) and a urogenital symptom scale into colloquial Chinese (Hong Kong) and test their validity and reliability in Hong Kong Chinese women. The scales were translated with standard techniques, and cross-cultural construct validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and responsiveness were tested on samples of women aged 40 to 60 years recruited from the community. A total of 611 women, with mean (SD) age of 48.9 (5.3) years, provided completed scales for the study. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated construct validity of the translated standard GCS. The items were found to have good homogeneity in measuring the scale concepts (Cronbach alpha > 0.7). But the three-item urogenital scale had poor internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.43), and a combination of this scale with the standard GCS resulted in a reduced model fit to the data. Test-retest reliability for the GCS was good on women recruited for a retest (n = 52). The translated GCS was found to be responsive to change over time (effect size, 0.59; n = 19). The Chinese (Hong Kong) version of the standard GCS is a valid and cultural-equivalent instrument. Our data do not support inclusion of the urogenital scale to the standard GCS. Measurement of urogenital symptoms is subject to further study.

Escala de clima organizacional para organizações de saúde: desenvolvimento e estrutura fatorial

O clima organizacional, um dos construtos de maior complexidade na área organizacional, apresenta características que podem ser percebidas de formas distintas por diferentes profissionais. Este estudo teve como objetivo desenvolver e validar a Escala de Clima Organizacional para Organizações de Saúde. Para validar o instrumento foram investigados 668 trabalhadores da área de saúde, que responderam a 100 itens, distribuídos em 13 dimensões. Foi utilizada para estudo da validade a análise fatorial e, para exame da consistência interna, o cálculo do alpha de Cronbach. Os resultados apontaram como melhor solução fatorial a estrutura de 64 itens, dispostos em sete fatores. A consistência interna da medida foi de 0,934. A Escala de Clima Organizacional para Organizações de Saúde demonstrou boa qualidade psicométrica, considerando-se o contexto cultural investigado. Sugere-se, entretanto, a ampliação dos estudos para outros tipos de amostra e organizações, de modo a verificar a validade transcultural do construto.

Screening for psychosocial distress amongst war‐affected children: cross‐cultural construct validity of the CPDS

Large-scale psychosocial interventions in complex emergencies call for a screening procedure to identify individuals at risk. To date there are no screening instruments that are developed within low- and middle-income countries and validated for that purpose. The present study assesses the cross-cultural validity of the brief, multi-informant and multi-indicator Child Psychosocial Distress Screener (CPDS). The CPDS data of total samples in targeted catchment areas of a psychosocial care program in four conflict-affected countries (Burundi n = 4193; Sri Lanka n = 2573; Indonesia n = 1624; Sudan n = 1629) were studied to examine the cross-cultural construct validity of the CPDS across settings. First, confirmatory factor analyses were done to determine the likelihood of pre-determined theory-based factor structures in each country sample. Second, multi-sample confirmatory factor analyses were done within each country sample to test measurement equivalence of the factor structure as a measure of construct validity. A 3-factor structure reflecting the theoretical premises of the instrument (e.g., child distress, child resilience and contextual factors) was found in the samples from Burundi, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, albeit with context specific deviations. The robustness of the 3-factor structure as an indicator of construct validity was confirmed within these three samples by means of multi-sample confirmatory factor-analyses. A 3-factor structure was not found in the Sudan sample. This study demonstrates the comparability of the assessment by the CPDS of the construct 'non-specific psychosocial distress' across three out of four countries. Robustness of the factor structure of the CPDS within different samples refers to the construct validity of the instrument. However, owing to context-specific deviations of inter-item relationships, the CPDS scores cannot be compared cross-culturally, a finding that confirms the need for attention to contextual factors when screening for non-specific psychosocial distress.

Perfectionism, Depression, Loneliness, and Life Satisfaction

This study investigates the cross-cultural construct validity of perfectionism using the Chinese translation of the Almost Perfect Scale—Revised (APS-R; Slaney, Mobley, Trippi, Ashby, &amp; Johnson, 1996) with 509 Chinese high school students from Hong Kong. The factor structure of the Chinese APS-R and correlations between the APS-R subscales and measures of Depression, Satisfaction with Life, and Loneliness are examined. Participants are grouped into three clusters—adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists and nonperfectionists. A comparison of group means revealed that adaptive perfectionists reported higher Satisfaction with Life scores and lower Depression scores than the other two groups. This sample of Chinese students also reported higher Discrepancy scores compared to U.S. students' scores in previous studies. Similarities and differences in comparison to previous studies using U.S. participants are examined. Finally, the limitations of this study and implications for future research with Chinese participants are discussed.

Cultural validity of the Almost Perfect Scale--Revised for African American college students.

This study investigated the cross-cultural construct validity of perfectionism using the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R; R. B. Slaney, M. Mobley, J. Trippi, J. S. Ashby, & D. G. Johnson, 1996) with 251 African American college students. A LISREL confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) offered support for the 3 subscales of the APS-R: High Standards, Order, and Discrepancy. Multigroup CFA results for a sample of 314 White college students supported factorial equivalence across the 2 cultural groups. Correlations between the subscales of the APS-R and measures of self-esteem, self-reported grade point average (GPA), satisfaction with GPA, trait anxiety, and depression were consistent with the results of previous research. A cluster analysis was performed on the APS-R; the cluster results were similar to those found in previous studies. Finally, the limitations of the present study and the implications for future research with African Americans are discussed.

DESNOS in three postconflict settings: Assessing cross-cultural construct equivalence

This study examined the cross-cultural construct equivalence of the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES), an instrument designed to assess symptoms of Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS). Participants completed the SIDES as a part of an epidemiological survey conducted between 1997 and 1999 among survivors of war or mass violence in Algeria (n = 652), Ethiopia (n = 1,200), and Gaza (n = 585). Findings indicated that the factor structure of the SIDES across samples was not stable; thus construct equivalence was not shown. A multistep interdisciplinary method is proposed to improve the cross-cultural construct validity of a psychiatric concept. This method accommodates universal chronic sequelae of extreme stress and accommodates culture-specific symptoms across a variety of cultures.

Validity Ofvertical and Horizontal Individualism and Collectivism in Singapore

The cross-cultural construct validity of vertical and horizontal individualism (VI and HI) and horizontal and vertical collectivism (HC and VC) at the individual level of analysis is examined across 180 U.S. and 184 Singapore students. The findings showed that the four-factor structure was invariant for a 16-item attitudinal measure (although one item did not fit well), the U.S. students were more HI and the Singapore students were more VC, and the constructs had culture-general and culture-specific associations with values and interests. Although the cross-cultural validity of the structure and individualism-collectivism dimension of the constructs were supported, the precision of the operationalization of the vertical-horizontal dimension by the 16-item measure is called into question because the expected correlations were not found.

Culturally Competent Assessment Practice in the United States

Assessment practice with multicultural populations in the United States requires cultural competence. Culturally competent assessment includes culture-specific styles of service delivery, use of the client's first language, and an evaluation of the client as a cultural being prior to test administration using cultural orientation categories. This information is essential for understanding health/illness beliefs, to indicate the possible presence of culture-specific symptoms, and to select standard or culture-specific tests. Assessment ethics recognize the desirability of alteration or modification of standard tests by translation and development of new norms. Cross-cultural construct validity, response sets, and cultural variables are also research priorities. Culture-specific tests should be constructed and validated for some clients as determined by cultural orientation status. Feedback of test findings to clients and significant others should be consistent with cultural expectations. Professional and societal benefits of cultural competence in assessment are suggested.