Cross-culturally adapting the GHQ-12 for use with refugee populations
Opportunities, dilemmas, and challenges
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2395582 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maya Fennig (0000-0002-9095-6780, Tel Aviv University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 168-181 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0041-1108 • E-ISSN: 0315-4386 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13634615231223884 |
| PMID | 38233737 |
| OpenAlex | W4390982460 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 66 |
This article discusses the opportunities, dilemmas, and challenges involved in the cross-cultural adaptation (CCA) of psychological scales for use with refugee populations. It draws on insights derived from an attempt to adapt the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to the particular culture and context of Eritrean refugees residing in Israel. Multiple techniques including expert translations, a focus-group discussion, a survey, and piloting, were employed to attain a cross-cultural and conceptually equivalent measure. During the CCA process, the research team encountered issues pertaining to conceptual non-equivalence, the structure of the measure's responses and scoring system, and acceptability. These issues required the team to move beyond semantic translation by adapting certain items. This study demonstrates the compromises which need to be made in the adaptation process and indicates the potential bias which each of these compromises introduces. Despite its limitations, CCA does appear to significantly improve detection of mental health symptoms in refugee populations. Overall, the results of the present study provide support for the notion that the sensitive and appropriate assessment of individuals from refugee backgrounds requires adopting a rigorous, systematic, and contextual approach to instrument adaptation, with an emphasis on the integration of idioms of distress as well as the adaptation of Likert-type scales
Adaptation (eye · Context (archaeology · Developmental psychology · Distress · Geography · Likert scale · Mental health · Political science · Psychiatry · Refugee · Applied Psychology · Clinical Psychology · Mental Health Treatment and Access · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Social Psychology
Use of ‘Sense of Coherence (Soc)’ Scale to Measure Resilience in Eritrea
The prevalence of mental illness in refugees and asylum seekers
Translation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Assessment Instruments Used in Psychological Research With Children and Families
New WHO prevalence estimates of mental disorders in conflict settings
Cross-Cultural Validity and Reliability Testing of a Standard Psychiatric Assessment Instrument without a Gold Standard
An alternative approach to cross-cultural function assessment
Mental health and quality of life among asylum seekers and refugees living in refugee housing facilities in Sweden
A review of guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of questionnaires could not bring out a consensus
Developing Instruments for Cross-Cultural Psychiatric Research
Validation of cross-cultural child mental health and psychosocial research instruments
Validated Screening Tools for Common Mental Disorders in Low and Middle Income Countries
Anthropology and Psychiatry
Measuring Trauma and Health Status in Refugees
Association of Torture and Other Potentially Traumatic Events With Mental Health Outcomes Among Populations Exposed to Mass Conflict and Displacement
Culture and Depression
The impact of trauma, flight and protracted displacement on the mental health of Eritrean refugees living in Israel
Global forced displacement
The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire
Nepali Concepts of Psychological Trauma
How to Fail a Scale
Idioms of distress
Utilization of Standardized Mental Health Assessments in Anthropological Research
Adapting culturally appropriate mental health screening tools for use among conflict-affected and other vulnerable adolescents in Nigeria
Construct validity and factor structure of sense of coherence (SoC-13) scale as a measure of resilience in Eritrean refugees living in Ethiopia
Violence en route
Eritrean Asylum Seekers’ Lament Ceremonies in Israel as Contested Sites of Identity Formation
The association between perceived social support and posttraumatic stress symptoms among Eritrean and Sudanese male asylum seekers in Israel
The Politics of Language in Eritrea
Relations between traumatic life events and mental health of Eritrean asylum-seeking mothers and their children's mental health
The Afghan Symptom Checklist
Resilience in Context
The Contribution of Gender-Role Orientation to Psychological Distress Among Male African Asylum-Seekers in Israel
Preparing Instruments for Transcultural Research
Methodological Challenges in Cross-Cultural Mental Health Research
Cultural concepts of distress and psychiatric disorders
The emotional distress of asylum seekers in Israel and the characteristics of those seeking psychiatric versus medical help
Mental and somatic health and pre- and post-migration factors among older Somali refugees in Finland
Strategies for assessing mental health in Haiti
The relationship of PTSD to key somatic complaints and cultural syndromes among Cambodian refugees attending a psychiatric clinic
Ethical Research in Refugee Communities and the Use of Community Participatory Methods
Toward a Culture-Informed Epidemiology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |