Cross-Language and Cross-Cultural Comparisons in Scale Translations

High fidelity translations of measurement instruments from one language to another are required for meaningful comparisons between and within cultures and language groups. Methods from Item Response Theory (IRT) were used to assess the degree to which a French Canadian translation of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) (Smith, Kendall, the roles of language and culture in item bias are examined independently. Interpretations for the patterns of bias displayed by some items are presented.