Evaluating the cross-cultural validity of three family quality of life sub-scales.
BACKGROUND
Families of children with disabilities often face unique challenges. Developed in a U.S. context, the Beach Center Family Quality of Life measure assesses the effectiveness of supports and services that families receive. This study examines whether items from three sub-scales of the Beach Center instrument perform similarly for two samples, one from Lusaka, Zambia, and the second from a Midwestern U.S. state.


METHODS
This cross-sectional research used secondary data and completed hierarchical ordinal regression analyses on item-level performance within the sub-scales.


RESULTS
Only one item flagged for potential item bias with remaining items performing similarly when controlling for overall sub-scale scores.


CONCLUSIONS
This study extends existing research on the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of the Beach Center measure, providing additional validity evidence about the internal structure of the scales. Findings indicate that these items are acceptable outcome measures for policy and programme evaluations in Zambia.
['Hepperlen|Renee A|RA|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8833-275X', 'Rabaey|Paula|P|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1476-7793', 'Hearst|Mary O|MO|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9068-827X']
D002648:Child D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D006801:Humans D008607:Intellectual Disability D011594:Psychometrics D011788:Quality of Life D015203:Reproducibility of Results D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D015024:Zambia
cross-cultural validity family quality of life children with disabilities Zambia differential item functioning low- and middle-income country