The Professional Counselor | Volume 11, Issue 3 281 Using CFA to confirm the factor structure of an established test with participants from a different culture is one way to investigate the cross-cultural fairness of scores. Suppose, for example, an investigator found acceptable internal structure validity evidence (see Table 1) for scores on an anxiety inventory that was normed in America with participants in Eastern Europe who identify with a collectivist cultural background. Such findings would suggest that the dimensionality of the anxiety inventory extends to the sample of Eastern European participants. However, internal structure validity testing alone might not be sufficient for testing the cross-cultural fairness of scores, as factor analysis does not test for content validity. In other words, although the CFA confirmed the dimensionality of an American model with a sample of Eastern European participants, the analysis did not take potential qualitative differences about the construct of measurement (anxiety severity) into account. It is possible (and perhaps likely) that the lived experience of anxiety differs between those living in two different cultures. Accordingly, a systems-level approach to test development and score validation can have utility for enhancing the cross-cultural fairness of scores (Swanepoel & Kruger, 2011). A Systems-Level Approach to Test Development and Score Validation Swanepoel and Kruger (2011) outlined a systemic approach to test development that involves circularity, which includes incorporating qualitative inquiry into the test development process, as qualitative inquiry has utility for uncovering the nuances of participants’ lived experiences that quantitative data fail to capture. For example, an exploratory-sequential mixed-methods design in which qualitative findings are used to guide the quantitative analyses is a particularly good fit with systemic approaches to test development and score validation. Referring to the example in the previous section, test developers might conduct qualitative interviews to develop a grounded theory of anxiety severity in the context of the collectivist culture. The grounded theory findings could then be used as the theoretical framework (see Kalkbrenner, 2021b) for a psychometric study aimed at testing the generalizability of the qualitative findings. Thus, in addition to evaluating the rigor of factor analytic results, professional counselors should also review the cultural context in which test items were developed before administering a test to clients. Language adaptions of instrumentation are another relevant cross-cultural fairness consideration in counseling research and practice. Word-for-word translations alone are insufficient for capturing cross-cultural fairness of instrumentation, as culture extends beyond just language (Lenz et al., 2017; Swanepoel & Kruger, 2011). Pure word-for-word translations can also cause semantic errors. For example, feeling “fed up” might translate to feeling angry in one language and to feeling full after a meal in another language. Accordingly, professional counselors should ensure that a translated instrument was subjected to rigorous procedures for maintaining cross-cultural fairness. Reviewing such procedures is beyond the scope of this manuscript; however, Lenz et al. (2017) outlined a 6-step process for language translation and cross-cultural adaptation of instruments. Conclusion Gaining a deeper understanding of the major approaches to factor analysis for demonstrating internal structure validity in counseling research has potential to increase assessment literacy among professional counselors who work in a variety of specialty areas. It should be noted that the thresholds for interpreting the strength of internal structure validity coefficients that are provided throughout this manuscript should be used as tentative guidelines, not unconditional standards. Ultimately, internal structure validity is a function of test scores and the construct of measurement. The stakes or consequences of test results should be considered when making final decisions about the strength of validity coefficients. As professional counselors increase their familiarity with factor
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