A Spanish Translation of the Hoarding Rating Scale: Differential Item Functioning and Convergent Validity

Hoarding disorder (HD) involves extreme difficulties discarding possessions and significant clutter in living areas. Although hoarding occurs worldwide, cross-cultural research remains in nascent stages, hampered in part by a lack of validated measures in non-English languages. We aimed to validate a Spanish translation of the Hoarding Rating Scale (HRS), a widely used measure of core HD symptoms. Our sample (N = 736) included participants responding in English (n = 548; 45.4% female; 7.9% Latinx) or Spanish (n = 188; 46.3% female; 79.9% Latinx) to questionnaires via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. An item response theory (IRT) approach was used to test differential item functioning (DIF) of the English and Spanish HRS. We also examined convergent validity of each language version with other HD. Initial comparisons revealed that hoarding symptoms were elevated in the Spanish-speaking sample compared to the English-speaking sample. DIF tests flagged the clutter item for potential bias (McFadden’s β = .069), but closer examination revealed that the impact was negligible. The Spanish HRS was significantly linked with other hoarding measures (Saving Inventory-Revised: β = .497, p < .001; Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory-Revised–Hoarding Subscale: β = .329, p = .008), controlling for mood, anxiety, stress, and non-hoarding OCD symptoms. However, the Spanish HRS was not significantly associated with Clutter Image Rating scores. Findings supported the utility of the HRS to measure of HD symptoms in Spanish speakers, though cross-linguistic assessment of clutter and the applicability of clinical cutoffs with Spanish-speaking samples merits further study.