Bilingual and Bicultural Research Teams: Unpacking the Complexities

he coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disproportionately impacts Black and Latine communities, who are experiencing health and economic ramifications of the pandemic at higher rates compared with non-Hispanic white communities. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Ensuring equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine is critical to reducing these disparities and improving health. Mistrust of medical professionals, research institutions, and governmental agencies

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“…27,28 Including non-Englishspeaking communities requires intentionality and must be done systematically. 29…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Information Sources for Black and Latine Communities: A Community Co-created Survey

Ragavan¹,

Ripper²,

Davidson³

et al. 2022

Progress in Community Health Partnerships

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“…The movement to professionalize language use in health care has led to qualification procedures for bilingual staff; however, the use of such procedures to ensure that bilingual research staff have the capability to provide direct support to NES participants, interpret for team members, or translate written materials is not yet routine. Bilingual research staff may feel comfortable speaking a language for general purposes but not necessarily to conduct complex consenting or describe research procedures . Standardized ways to determine professional language proficiency and engage trained interpreters in the research setting are needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inclusion of Non–English-Speaking Participants in Pediatric Health Research

et al. 2023

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ImportanceThe inclusion of non–English-speaking (NES) participants in pediatric research is an essential step to improving health equity for these populations. Although some studies have shown lack of progress in NES research participation in the past decade, few have examined NES inclusivity in pediatric research or details about the practices that researchers have used to communicate with NES participants.ObjectiveTo assess how frequently NES families were included in pediatric research, how rates of inclusion changed over time, what languages were included, and methodological details about oral and written communication with NES participants.Evidence ReviewIn this review, all original investigation articles published in JAMA Pediatrics, Pediatrics, and The Journal of Pediatrics between January 2012 and November 2021 were screened. Eligible articles, which included those based in the US and with human participants, were reviewed to determine whether they included or excluded NES participants or whether or not there was specific mention of language. A second-round review was conducted on the subset of articles that included NES participants to determine methodological details (eg, languages included, type of study, region where the study was located, and oral and written communication practices with NES participants).FindingsOf the 8142 articles screened, 5008 (62%) met inclusion criteria; of these, 469 (9%) included NES participants. The most common language was Spanish (350 [75%]); 145 articles (31%) reported non-English or other language without specification. A total of 230 articles (49%) reported the number of NES participants, and 61 (13%) specified the methods used to determine whether participants preferred a language other than English. In all, 101 (22%) and 136 (29%) articles specified how oral and written communication occurred with NES participants, respectively.Conclusions and RelevanceThis review of 3 pediatric journals provides preliminary evidence suggesting exclusion of NES communities from pediatric research from 2012 to 2021 and highlights an opportunity to provide more methodological detail about communication with NES participants. Best practices for improving inclusivity of NES participants are needed to guide researchers toward improved methods and more relevant results.

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“…The method was developed based on the theoretical foundation of Gee's (2014) linguistic concepts, Leininger's theory of culture care diversity and universality, and the synthesis of recommendations for multilanguage qualitative data analysis, content analysis, and trustworthiness. The method brought forth cultural themes that may otherwise have been overlooked if the Spanish transcripts had been translated into English and if the research team had not been both multilingual and multicultural (Dolan et al, 2022; Ragavan & Cowden, 2020). The method outlines a systematic and pragmatic way for qualitative research teams to organize and analyze qualitative data in multiple languages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodology for Analyzing Qualitative Data in Multiple Languages

Dolan,

Alvarez,

Freylersythe

et al. 2023

Nursing Research

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Background Translation strategies are commonly used for qualitative interview data to bridge language barriers. Inconsistent translation of interviews can lead to conceptual inequivalence, where meanings of participants' experiences are distorted, threatening scientific rigor. Objectives Our objective is to describe a systematic method developed to analyze multilingual, qualitative interview data while maintaining the original language of the transcripts. Methods A literature review of translation strategies, cross-language, and multilingual qualitative research was conducted. Combined with criteria for qualitative content analysis and trustworthiness, the methodology was developed and used for a qualitative descriptive study. Results The study had interview data in both English and Spanish. The research team consisted of both native Spanish and English speakers, who were grouped based on language. Verbatim transcription of data occurred in the original languages. All codes were kept in English, allowing the research team to view the data set as a whole. Two researchers within each group coded each transcript independently before reaching a consensus. The entire research team discussed all transcripts, and finally, major themes were determined. Participants' quotes remained in the original language for publication, with an English translation included when needed. Discussion Analyzing transcripts in the original language brought forth cultural themes that otherwise may have been overlooked. This methodology promotes conceptual equivalence and trustworthiness that is paramount in cultural, linguistic, and social determinants of health research to advance health equity.

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Bilingual and Bicultural Research Teams: Unpacking the Complexities

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

COVID-19 Information Sources for Black and Latine Communities: A Community Co-created Survey

COVID-19 Information Sources for Black and Latine Communities: A Community Co-created Survey

Inclusion of Non–English-Speaking Participants in Pediatric Health Research

Methodology for Analyzing Qualitative Data in Multiple Languages

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