Table 1 Steps of translation, adaptation and validation of instruments

Step 1

Translation of the original instrument into the target language (forward translation or one-way translation)

Step 2

comparison of the two translated versions of the instrument (TL1 and TL2): synthesis

Step 3

blind back-translation (blind backward translation or blind double translation) of the preliminary initial translated version of the instrument

Step 4

comparison of the two back-translated versions of the instrument (B-TL1 and B-TL2): synthesis II

Step 5

pilot testing of the pre-final version of the instrument in the target language with a monolingual sample: cognitive debriefing

Step 6

preliminary psychometric testing of the pre-final version of the translated instrument with a bilingual sample. This step is rarely used

Step 7

full psychometric testing of the pre-final version of the translated instrument in a sample of the target population