title: From meaning to meaning: the influence of translation techniques on non-English focus group research.
abstract: Language translation techniques are at the core of many cross-cultural qualitative research projects. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of translation techniques on the collection and interpretation of non-English to English qualitative data and, in particular, on focus-group data collection and analysis. The goal is to offer suggestions that will minimize potential threats to validity. This article includes a working definition of translation, a discussion of issues related to translation in quantitative research, a discussion of how translation issues differ in focus group research, evaluation criteria for translators and interpreters, and an example of translation techniques used in a research study of perimenopausal Hispanic women.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University School of Nursing, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Esposito
mesh_terms: D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D014175:Translating; D014481:United States