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In psychology, there is a growing interest in cross-cultural studies, which have demanded greater concern about the quality and suitability of adapted and validated instruments for use in different contexts. While recognizing the importance of adapting instruments to other cultures, researchers have indicated that most of the research in this field has been deemed invalid because of inadequate procedures for translating and adapting the instruments. Sometimes, the adaptations of psychological instruments are based on the mere translation of items into the new language. In general, these translations are performed by the researchers themselves and rely solely on the process of back-translation, in which only the degree of semantic equivalence between the adapted version and the original version is analyzed.

There is no consensus on how to adapt an instrument for use in another cultural context. Such a procedure will depend on the instrument characteristics, the context of its application (both the original version and its adaptation), and the population for whom it is intended. The consensus is that the adaptation process, however, goes beyond mere translation, which does not guarantee construct validity or measurement reliability.

The process of adapting instruments should consider the relevance of original instrument concepts and domains in the new culture, in addition to considering the appropriateness of each item of the original instrument in terms of the ability to represent such concepts and domains in the new target population. Furthermore, the process should consider the semantic, linguistic, and contextual equivalence between the original and translated items and should include an analysis of the psychometric properties of the original instrument and its new version. Our experience in following these steps proposed has generated more reliable possibilities for evaluating various constructs in different contexts, while not wasting time, money, or materials. Poorly adapted instruments may present problems when they are used in other studies, which may generate inconsistent or unreliable data. In general, the researcher only realizes the errors of the process of translation, adaptation, and validation of an instrument at the time of collection and subsequent data analysis.

In cross-cultural studies, the use of instruments that are merely translated does not ensure reliable results because mere translation does not provide parameters to evaluate whether the results refer to differences or similarities between the different samples or derive from translation errors. During the last few decades, cross-cultural studies have attracted special attention from researchers, particularly in the field of mental health. These studies enable, through the application of a given instrument, comparisons between different individuals from different cultural contexts. Cross-cultural studies not only verify differences between individuals and cultures but also help us understand the common features among them. Therefore, we must have instruments that are properly adapted and can provide measurement equivalence regardless of the context in which they are used. In this sense, besides the need for a rigorous process of adaptation, the assessment of the psychometric properties of the new instrument is essential to ensure that the instrument is in usable condition.