Abstract
The 20-item Illegal Aliens Scale, which was developed and validated by Ommundsenand Larsen at Oregon State University (1999), has been translated into Norwegian andDutch. Cross-national comparisons of attitudes require equivalence of measurementinstruments (Rogler, 1999). The results of a translation – back translation procedure anda split sample study by (Ommundsen et al., in print) suggest that linguistic equivalencemay not be sufficient to detect other non-equivalence of meaning in cross-national research.This paper discusses a follow-up methodological study of the Dutch and Norwegianversions of this scale. This study consisted of two parts: (a) A `cognitive' test by meansof the three-step test-interviews (Hak et al., 2001) with Dutch and Norwegiansubjects. (b) A comparative study of differences in political salience of the itemsof the scale between Norway and the Netherlands. Results show that differences inhistorical, political and cultural context result in different interpretations of seeminglystraightforward concepts and that this affects how responses to attitude items are constructed.
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Van Der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., Hak, T. et al. Meaning Shift of Items in Different Language Versions. A Cross-National Validation Study of the Illegal Aliens Scale. Quality & Quantity 37, 193–206 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023326609542
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023326609542