Towards a theory of bias and equivalence

"Bias refers to the presence of nuisance factors in cross-cultural research. Three types of bias are distinguished, depending on whether the nuisance factor is located at the level of the construct (construct bias), the measurement instrument as a whole (method bias) or the items (item bias or differential item functioning). Equivalence refers to the measurement level characteristics that apply to cross-cultural score comparisons; three types of equivalence are defined: construct (identity of constructs across cultures), measurement unit (identity of measurement unit), and scalar equivalence (identity of measurement unit and scale origin). Bias often jeopardizes equivalence. Implications of the occurrence of bias on equivalence are described. Examples of how equivalence can be enhanced in multilingual studies are given." (author's abstract

The Historical and Social-Cultural Context of Acculturation of Moroccan-Dutch

Moroccan laborers and their families started migrating to the Netherlands from the 1960s. We used research findings on migration and acculturation to examine the historical and social-cultural context of Moroccan-Dutch. Dutch administration at national, regional, and local level had no integration policy upon their arrival. Later, when many Moroccan-Dutch stayed longer in the Netherlands than anticipated, the Dutch administration favored a multicultural policy based on integration and maintenance of ethnic culture. This contrasted with the Moroccan policy: Moroccans abroad were told not to integrate in Dutch society but to invest in Morocco. Due to the weak outcomes and a negative attitude towards migrants, the focus in Dutch policy changed to assimilation policy. We argue that this policy reinforced the negative factors, such as exclusion, segregation, and low social capital. Compared to other non-western migrants in the Netherlands, Moroccan-Dutch score relatively high on some vital participation domains (e.g., education), but also high on risk factors (e.g., unemployment and ill-health). Studying the sociolinguistic situation and social environment related to migration contributes to a better understanding of acculturation of Moroccan-Dutch. Insights in these factors can shed light on how to understand and improve acculturation outcomes

The cross-cultural relevance of indigenous measures : the South African personality inventory (SAPI), family orientation, and well-being in New Zealand

Indigenous personality research often remains limited to its cultural context of origin. Previous cross-cultural examinations of indigenous models have typically focused on East–West comparisons and have paid scant attention to the predictive validity of indigenous models in new contexts. The present study addresses the replicability of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) and its predictive validity for family orientation and well-being in New Zealand European (n = 428) and Māori students (n = 226). The structure of the SAPI in New Zealand was equivalent to the structure identified in South Africa and had metric invariance between the two New Zealand groups. The SAPI social-relational scales explained additional variance above neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness in family orientation, but not in well-being. Mediation path analyses suggested that personality played a similar role for family orientation and well-being in the two groups when assessed by the SAPI, although group differences were suggested when using the Big Five Inventory. Our findings indicate that indigenously derived models, developed with the aim to represent culturally salient concepts, can be relevant well beyond their culture of origin and offer an enriched understanding of personality’s role for important outcomes across cultures.The School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.http://jcc.sagepub.comhj2022Human Resource Managemen

Assessment of Acculturation: Issues and Overview of Measures

Publicly available acculturation measures are systematically reviewed based on three criteria: scale descriptors (name of the scale, authors, year, target group, age group, subscales, and number of items), psychometric properties (reliabilities) and conceptual and theoretical structure (acculturation conditions, acculturation orientations, acculturation outcomes, acculturation attitudes, acculturation behaviors, conceptual model and life domains). Majority of the reviewed acculturation measures are short, single-scale instruments that are directed to specific target groups. Additionally, they mainly assess behavioral acculturation outcomes than acculturation conditions and orientations. Regarding the psychometric properties; most measures have an adequate internal consistency; yet cross-cultural validity of the instruments have not been reported. Guidelines for choosing or developing acculturation instruments are provided in the chapter

Assessment in Multicultural Groups: The Role of Acculturation

On analyse le rôle de l’acculturation dans l’évaluation des groupes multiculturels. Des procédures standardisées doivent être développées pour prendre en compte la composition multiculturelle des sociétés contemporaines où les individus, relevants de références culturelles multiples, ne disposent pas de l’aisance culturelle et langagière que les procédures d’évaluation présupposent lors de la passation des tests psychologie et d’éducation. La première partie de l’article présente un bref survol des modèles d’acculturation et souligne la pertinence de l’acculturation dans le testing multiculturel. La seconde partie aborde des questions conceptuelles et méthodologiques dans l’évaluation de l’acculturation. S’ensuit une discussion sur la façon dont l’acculturation peut être prise en compte dans l’évaluation des groupes multiculturels, par exemple en établissant différentes normes pour des groupes culturels différents, en ajoutant une correction pour le statut d’acculturation, ou en évaluant l’acculturation et en utilisant ce score en covariation ou comme valeur seuil, ce qui décidera si oui ou non un résultat à un test peut être interprété valablement. The role of acculturation in assessment in multicultural groups is discussed. It is argued that standard procedures are to be developed to deal with the multicultural composition of today’s societies, in which clients come from various cultural backgrounds and do not have the familiarity with the language and culture of the psychological and educational tests that is implicitly assumed in the assessment procedure. The first part presents a brief overview of acculturation models and points out the relevance of acculturation in multicultural testing. The second part of the paper discusses conceptual and methodological issues in the assessment of acculturation. This is followed by a discussion of ways in which acculturation can be taken into account in assessing multicultural groups, such as establishing different norms for different cultural groups, adding a “correction” for acculturation status, or assessing acculturation, and using this score either as a covariate or as a threshold value that determines whether or not a score on a target instrument can be interpreted adequately. Implications are discussed.

On the elusive nature of high Chinese achievement

It is argued that Stankov's proposal to view unforgivingness as underlying the combination of high educational achievement, anxiety, and self-doubt is an original way of summarizing Confucian score patterns. However, it is argued that the proposal cannot explain why reading scores in Confucian countries are not higher than in other countries and that an empirical study to test the proposal is difficult to conduct as it would require the involvement of many different countries