Page 291 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

258 n InSTRUMenT TRanSLaTIon

that a maximum equivalence between the SL serve as bilingual translators and personally
and TL versions is achieved. develop a translated instrument. However,
I one of the major issues related to even if back-translation is employed, the per-
instrument translation is that there has son conducting the research is unlikely to
been no consensus on standard guide- be blinded to the original instrument, and
lines for the processes and evaluation of its therefore, may be biased toward the culture
quality (Maneesriwongul & Dixon, 2004). of the SL. as a result, the approach of having
Historically, nursing has shifted from quali- the researchers themselves serving as bilin-
tative methods to applying multiple methods gual translators calls into question the trans-
of qualitative and quantitative approaches, lation quality and the validity of the study
including the use of instruments to under- findings (Jones & Kay, 1992).
stand and compare health phenomena In addition, the recruitment of sufficient
among different cultures and groups of peo- bilingual subjects for pretesting on the target
ple (Meleis, 1996). However, with a lack of population may not be easy (Jones, 1986; Tang
standard guidelines, the quality of instru- & Dixon, 2002; Yu et al., 2004). Willgerodt
ment translation processes and how these et al. (2005) also points out that researchers
processes are implemented varies widely often underestimate the time needed to trans-
among published cross-cultural nursing late instruments. Because the translation pro-
research (Maneesriwongul & Dixon, 2004; cesses involves numerous discussions and
Willgerodt et al., 2005). To address this issue, iterations in each of multiple steps, it can be
Maneesriwongul and Dixon (2004) systemat- time-consuming and costly. Therefore, ade-
ically examined published nursing literature quate time and budget must be built into a
and classified instrument translation pro- research plan. If sufficient numbers of trans-
cesses into six hierarchical categories with lators, experts (reviewers), and/or bilingual
an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of subjects cannot be recruited, or time and/or
the approaches: (1) forward-only translation budget is severely restricted, the rigor of the
(without pretest), (2) forward translation with instrument translation process will be dimin-
monolingual test, (3) back-translation only ished (Maneesriwongul & Dixon, 2004).
(without pretest), (4) back-translation with Major issues from theoretical and
monolingual test, (5) back-translation with research perspectives are related to the
bilingual test, and (6) back-translation establishment of equivalence (validity) in
with both monolingual and bilingual tests. a translated instrument. Literal translation
Unfortunately, nurse researchers compromises not only the language congru-
encounter socioeconomic and contemporary ence, but also the content/conceptual valid-
practice issues that may render these rig- ity of the translated instrument. For example,
orous, and possibly expensive, approaches bilingual translators tended to follow the
to instrument translation as unfeasible. It grammatical structure (word sequence)
may be challenging to locate more than one and/or nuances of the SL and the transla-
experienced bilingual translator and experts tion is likely to be literal (word-for-word
(reviewers) who are knowledgeable in the translation), which can result in awkward
purpose and intent of the instrument, as syntax and incomprehensible sentences in
well as familiar with the everyday use of the the TL version (Hilton & Strutkowski, 2002;
language in the target society (Wang, Lee, & Maneesriwongul & Dixon, 2004; Willgerodt
Fetzer, 2006). on the contrary, as increasing et al., 2005). as recommended by Brislin
number of nurses from non–english-speak- (1986), the TL version should be reviewed by
ing countries receive advanced educations in one or more individuals who do not have any
the United States or other english-speaking familiarity with the original version, so that
countries, the researchers themselves may such grammatical errors can be identified.