Overcoming the issue of language barriers with Cantonese speaking families when researching the impact of developmental disability

Cross-cultural studies in East-Asia are needed in educational psychology research because past-studies have found that having a child in the family with a developmental disability can induce feelings of stress, impose major psychological and social adjustments, increase the burden of care and place the entire family at risk. Chinese participants have been under-represented in family studies for some time and language issues have been identified as a recurrent barrier to research participation by Chinese samples. The three major reasons for non-participation are the lack of translated materials, feeling intimidated by English, and the lack of translation of key words. To increase participation in survey research projects, it is clear that first one must remove language barriers. The Impact on Family Scale [1] is a measure that has repeatedly shown good construct validity in assessing the impact of chronic illness on family functioning. Like many health status questionnaires, the Impact on Family Scale was developed in an English-speaking country. The aim of the present study was to develop a Hong Kong Chinese version of the Impact on Family Scale for parents of children with autism to make it culturally viable for Cantonese speaking and traditional script reading participants.