Conceptual, item, semantic, and operational equivalence of a Brazilian version of the s-EMBU for measuring parental rearing practices in adolescents

Parental upbringing of children and adolescents has received little attention in research on the promotion of children’s health and wellbeing. This paper presents the initial cross-cultural adaptation process of a Brazilian version of the s-EMBU for adolescents, which intends to capture parental rearing practices. The study takes a universalistic approach to assess the four initial phases of cross-cultural adaptation: conceptual, item, semantic, and operational equivalence. The process thus included a literature review, discussion with experts, and translation and back-translation of items. A pretest was conducted with 10 adolescents in the waiting room of a public clinic. The adolescents did not understand some items as proposed in the original constructs. After some rewording, the items were properly understood as projected by the original instrument. The findings suggest that this Brazilian version of s-EMBU for adolescents is promising and that it provides room for future psychometric studies to complete the cross-cultural adaptation process.