Advancing Cross-Cultural Measurement: Ensuring Validity and Equity in Psychological Assessment

About this Research Topic

Background

The field of cross-cultural assessment in psychology is increasingly grappling with the complexities of measuring psychological constructs across diverse populations. With the global expansion of psychological research and practice, ensuring that measurement instruments yield valid, reliable, and equitable results across linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic groups is a pressing concern. Despite recognition of the importance of comparability, challenges persist around construct validity, translation bias, and culturally nuanced response patterns, often threatening the integrity of scientific conclusions and the fairness of resulting applications. Recent decades have seen a surge in sophisticated methodological approaches—such as measurement invariance analysis, differential item functioning detection, and item response theory modeling—yet the translation of these tools into routine practice remains inconsistent.

Recent studies have begun to demonstrate how advanced psychometric techniques can help identify and rectify sources of bias in cross-cultural measurement. Research employing multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, machine learning approaches to differential item functioning, and item response theory-based linking has reaffirmed that careful validation and adaptation are crucial for producing data that genuinely reflect psychological traits rather than methodological artifacts. At the same time, systematic reviews have highlighted persistent gaps: many widely used instruments lack rigorous cross-group validation, and transparent, reproducible workflows for adaptation and testing are not yet standard. As the field advances, the need for both conceptual innovation and practical guidance on best practices for cross-cultural measurement grows ever more urgent.

This Research Topic aims to catalyze theoretical, methodological, and applied advances that directly address these challenges. The primary objective is to promote the development, critical evaluation, and practical application of approaches that enhance the fairness, accuracy, and validity of psychological assessments across populations. By gathering contributions that test new frameworks, refine analytic techniques, and document best practices in validation and adaptation, this collection seeks to set a higher standard for methodological rigor in multicultural research. Key questions include: How can measurement invariance and differential item functioning methodologies be optimized for diverse settings? What workflow best ensures that translation and cultural adaptation minimize construct inequivalence? Which analytic strategies most effectively uncover and remedy culturally driven response biases?

The scope of this Research Topic centers on advancing and applying robust quantitative methodologies for cross-cultural psychological measurement, with an emphasis on both statistical innovations and real-world validation. Contributions are expected to remain within the domain of quantitative methodological advancement or applied validation in cross-cultural contexts.
To gather further insights into the improvement of cross-cultural assessment, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance procedures
• Detection of differential item functioning using IRT, logistic regression, or machine learning
• IRT-based linking, equating, and score interpretation across cultural groups
• Standardized translation, adaptation, and validation workflows for psychological instruments
• Investigation and remediation of response styles and bias in multicultural assessment
• Simulation studies probing psychometric properties in diverse samples
• Applications of advanced measurement methods in clinical, educational, organizational, developmental, or health psychology

Appendix:
We encourage submissions in the forms of original research, methodological articles, systematic reviews, brief research reports, theoretical perspectives, and applied cross-cultural validation studies. All manuscripts should detail methodological decision-making, provide reproducible workflows when feasible, and highlight implications for robust and equitable psychological measurement.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Cross-cultural measurement, Measurement invariance, Differential item functioning, Item Response Theory, Test translation and adaptation, Psychometrics, Validity, Reliability

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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