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Translating From English to Spanish

The 2002 National Survey of Family Growth

National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hyattsville, Maryland

Barbara V. Marín

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Georgia

Alisú Schoua-Glusberg

Research Support Services Evanston, Illinois

In 2002, the National Center for Health Statistics conducted Cycle 6 of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), surveying a nationally representative sample of 12,500 women and men from 15 to 44 years of age, including more than 2,700 Hispanics. The process for developing the Spanish version of the NSFG included modified committee translation, review of the instrument for cultural difficulties and misunderstandings, cognitive interviewing, and extensive pretesting. Interviewer debriefing provided additional information about the Spanish instrument. Challenges to developing an easily understood instrument included the language level of the survey, language misunderstandings, and cultural issues. To improve surveys of this type, sufficient time should be allowed for translation and qualitative testing. Debriefing of interviewers is a valuable source of data on instrument issues.

Key Words: translation • Spanish • Hispanics • National Survey of Family Growth • cognitive interviewing

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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Martinez, G. Articles by Schoua-Glusberg, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?