Translation and validation of body image instruments: Challenges, good practice guidelines, and reporting recommendations for test adaptation

Abstract

Body image research has grown rapidly to include new cultural and linguistic populations, but this gives rise to a need for measurement instruments that are sensitive to local contextual variations while remaining equivalent across groups. Test adaptation, or the translation and validation of a source instrument for use in a new cultural group, is an important part of this process. Here, we offer an operational framework for conducting effective test adaptation. We cover good-practice guidelines for instrument translation and suggest effective strategies for achieving semantic equivalence of translated instruments. We also focus on measurement invariance and provide good-practice and reporting guidelines for conducting exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Finally, we suggest good-practice guidelines for demonstrating that scores on translated measures have good reliability and validity. It is our hope that the availability of this article will assist body image scholars seeking to conduct robust test adaptations of existing measurement tools.