CROSS-CULTURAL MEASUREMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING - THE PSYCHOMETRIC EQUIVALENCE OF CANTONESE, VIETNAMESE, AND LAOTIAN TRANSLATIONS OF THE AFFECT BALANCE SCALE

Objectives. This paper evaluates the cultural equivalence of Cantonese , Vietnamese, and Laotian translation of the Affect Balance Scale. Met hods. The scale was completed by 399 Vietnamese, 193 Laotian, 756 Cant onese, and 319 English speakers who were participants in the Clarke In stitute-University of Toronto Refugee Resettlement Project (n = 1667). Results. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated a good fit between th e hypothesized two-factor model (separate factors for positive and neg ative affect) across the original English-language version and each of the Asian-language translations. Factorial invariance (numbers and pa tterns of factor loadings) was evident across all versions of the scal e. No evidence of item bias was detected by mixed Language X Item anal yses of variance. Acceptable reliability was observed; coefficient alp has ranged from .62 to .72 for positive affect and from .62 to .70 for negative affect items. Conclusions. These findings substantiate the c ultural equivalence of the three translations of the scale for populat ion health research. Important future research directions made possibl e by the availability of culturally equivalent instruments are discuss ed.