Cultural and linguistic adaptation of psychosocial measurements for latinx participants—Leveraging community‐engaged research methods

Abstract

Predominantly Spanish-speaking Latinx individuals are underrepresented in research, and one primary barrier is the lack of infrastructure to effectively engage, among them, adequate cultural and linguistic adaptation of research measures.Capitalizing on existing recommendations for appropriate and ethical engagement of Latinx individuals in research, we present a comprehensive approach to cultural and linguistic adaptation, and describe the application of this approach in the context of an ongoing longitudinal, observational, community-engaged study that follows a cohort of young adult Latinx immigrants (ages 18-44) in the Southeastern region of the United States who were predominantly Spanish-speakers (N = 391).We describe barriers that researchers may face in their pursuit of cultural and linguistic adaptation and offset these challenges with tangible solutions. We discuss lessons learned through our application to a research study. This approach holds promise for reducing barriers to participation in research and health disparities in predominantly Spanish-speaking Latinx individuals, who represent a population that is growing in size in the United States yet is still underrepresented as research participants and in the research workforce.

Spanish Translation and Psychometric Validation of a Measure of Acculturative Stress among Latinx Immigrants in the USA

“…For decades, many measures that incorporated multidimensional domains entailed longer and time-consuming scales that evoked participant burden. Participant burden is important to consider for Latinx immigrant communities since they already tend to underutilize healthcare services [ 45 , 46 , 47 ] or are more hesitant to participate in research [ 48 , 49 ]. If they do participate, they tend to terminate early when compared to other non-Latinx communities [ 50 ].…”

Acculturation, Acculturative Stress, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Intimate Partner Violence Among Latinx Immigrants in the US

“…Although our sample generally reflected the heritage among Latinx immigrants in the US, we acknowledge that a majority of our sample are women, heterosexual, documented, and recruited from a single region in U.S. South, limiting the generalizability of the study findings. Despite the use of culturally and linguistically adapted measures (Nagy et al, 2021), the dichotomous nature of ACEs and IPV scoring did not account for the severity of each exposure and assumed the same weights of all incidents, which can limit our ability to distinguish among exposures that were most meaningful for Latinx immigrants. Another limitation concerns potential overlap in information (e.g., divorced parents and family members with health challenges were captured by both ACEs and pre-migration stress), although statistically, collinearity was not a concern between these variables.…”

“…Each measure matched the definition of respective concept and was culturally and linguistically adapted for Latinx immigrants. Adaptation details are published (Nagy et al, 2021).…”

Putting ourselves together: School belonging, parental socialization, and teacher support of Latinx youth.

“…The longitudinal timeline of the data (i.e., parent and teacher variables preceding academic outcomes) is consistent with the direction of effects we hypothesized in the mediation model. Measures were administered verbally by research assistants to parents and children to avoid literacy barriers (Nagy et al, 2021; Skaff et al, 2002). Parents had the choice to complete measures in English or Spanish; as all youth were bilingual, they completed measures in English.…”