How Harmful are Survey Translations? A Test with Schwartz's Human Values Instrument

Abstract

One major challenge in international survey research is to ensure the equivalence of translated survey instruments across different cultures. In this study, we examine empirically the extent to which equivalence of survey instruments to measure human values can be established across cultures sharing the same language as opposed to cultures having a different language. We expect cultures using the same language to exhibit higher levels of equivalence. Our examination made use of a short (i.e., a 21-item) survey instrument to measure Schwartz's human values based on data from the second and the third rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS). The empirical results support our expectations.

Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Schooling

“…Factor analysis provided the researcher with the ability to reduce and cluster the complexity of the variables, so it was easier for the researcher to investigate the problem (Huck, 2011;Mertler & Vannaatta, 2010). Davidov and Beuckelaer (2010) explained that some questions might have different meanings and content for individuals from different cultures or who speak languages. The survey's original language was English, and the researcher translated it into Turkish.…”

“…The survey's original language was English, and the researcher translated it into Turkish. As such, Davidov and Beuckelaer (2010) suggested that the researcher needed to evaluate the reliability of the survey instrument. Factor analysis was used in this study to test for equivalence of the survey questions across cultural groups.…”

Minding the gap: Elucidating the disconnect between arts participation metrics and arts engagement within immigrant communities

“…The primary limitations to this study are considerations about translation and its limited sample. For the interviews, a subset of the SPPA's questions was translated into Mandarin and Cantonese and we acknowledge the complications introduced when translating a survey instrument (Berkanovic, 1980;Davidov & De Beuckelaer, 2010). As is the challenge with translations generally, direct translation does not always clearly convey the intended meaning.…”

Measurement Equivalence Across Subnational Groups: An Analysis of the Conception of Nationhood in Switzerland

“…Although the cross-national comparability of these scales has received considerable methodological attention (Heath, Martin, & Spreckelsen, 2009;Medina, Smith, & Long, 2009;Reeskens & Hooghe, 2010), no study, to our knowledge, has so far examined whether they can be validly compared or pooled in countries with distinct subnational groups. Although some common causes of nonequivalence are less likely to be problematic within a country (e.g., data collection and sampling methods; Heath et al, 2009), distinctive features of the subnational groups, in particular different languages (Davidov & De Beuckelaer, 2010), may jeopardize measurement equivalence.…”