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In this article, we used results from two studies to show the need to go beyond linguistic equivalence to establish construct validity and measurement invariance in cross‐cultural research. Study 1 examined Rosenberg Self‐Esteem (RSE; 10 items) data from 156 Mainland Chinese youth (M = 13.8 years, SD =.53) and 213 Chinese‐American youth (M = 13.6 years, SD = 2.1) from high socioeconomic status (SES) families. The Chinese translation of the RSE has been widely used. Study 2 included 1060 Mainland Chinese youth (M = 15.6 years, SD = 2.3) and 412 racially diverse American youth (M = 16.0, SD = 2.9) from all SES backgrounds. Data were collected with the third and newest edition of the Behavioural Assessment System for Children‐Self Report of Personality (BASC‐3‐SRP; 189 items). We translated and back‐translated the BASC‐3‐SRP between English and Chinese to establish linguistic equivalence. All participants were females. Study 1 showed that the RSE had acceptable internal consistency but lacked construct validity. Study 2 showed that the original and the translated BASC‐3‐SRP had good internal consistency and construct validity, but nine of its 16 subscales lacked measurement invariance. These results highlight measurement issues facing international and cross‐cultural research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we illustrated issues related to measure invariance in cross-cultural research involving instrument translation between Chinese and English. We translated and back-translated the third edition of the Behavioral Assessment for Children-Self Report of Personality (BASC-3-SRP) and administered it to 1,574 youth in China and 512 youth in the United States. We found that despite a rigorous approach to achieving linguistic equivalence, statistically demonstrating acceptable internal consistency and construct validity, measurement invariance tests revealed that six of the 16 BASC-3-SRP subscales lacked measurement invariance. Constructs for the first three of the six subscales that lacked measurement invariance (i.e., Negative Attitude toward School, Negative Attitude toward Teachers, and Self-Esteem) are known to be conceptualized differently in collectivistic societies, while constructs for the second three subscales (i.e., Atypicality, Sense of Inadequacy, and Hyperactivity) lacked measurement invariance without known cultural reasons. These results highlight instrument development issues and measurement variance issues that cross-cultural researchers must grapple with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]