Examining life in detention: A process of survey translation and adaptation through an ecological and collaborative approach

Abstract

This paper illustrates the process we engaged in to translate and adapt a survey to examine life in an immigration detention center in Italy from the perspective of the migrants detained therein. The process consisted of: the forward translation of the original measure performed by four independent translators; a blind backward translation to identify misinterpretations or incorrect cross-cultural and contextual adaptations; a synthesis of all translations to obtain a semifinal version; the creation of an Expert Committee composed of scholars, practitioners, and migrants with experience of detention to assess equivalence and content validity; and, finally, pretesting with a group of 15 detained persons. Through this multi-step process we obtained a measure capable of grasping the context-specific meanings, needs and experiences that characterize life in detention. The challenges and benefits of a collaborative and ecological approach to measurement translation and adaption are discussed in the final section.

Keywords:

• Collaborative research
• ecological perspective
• measurement translation and adaptation
• migrant detention
• migration

Acknowledgments

We are also grateful to all the people who supported us in this work: B. Ljubisavljevic, B. Kellezi, C. Quinto, F. De Masi, F. Vacchiano, G. Zandonini, L. Beretta, M. Tomai, M. Roffi, M. Bosworth, Meijka, S. Di Martino and s. Gookoolok. Finally, we want to thank all the people we met inside Ponte Galeria detention center: the practitioners, and particularly the BeFree team, and, above all, the detainees, who gave us the opportunity to walk alongside them in a difficult moment of their lives.

Additional information

Funding

Francesca Esposito’s doctoral research, on which this article relies, was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [SFRH/BD/87854/2012], and her subsequent work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [CEECIND/00924/2018/CP1541/CT0004].