Measurement Issues for Social Work Evaluation and Research with Diverse Population

Social work researchers are increasingly aware of the need to conduct cross-cultural research and evaluation whether for hypothesis testing or outcome evaluations. To ensure the quality of data collection and validity of outcomes, social work researchers must have both reliable and valid research instruments and measurements. Using scales that lack comparable measurement properties for comparisons across different cultural groups lead to biases. Thus measurement equivalence is a fundamental issue in social work research and evaluation in our increasingly culturally diverse society. The present workshop examines tools for evaluating measurement equivalence across cultural groups and the construction of more valid and reliable research instruments.