Multidimensional scaling and equivalence: is having a job the same as working?

Abstract

"The question of functional equivalence in internationally comparative surveys is discussed from the viewpoint of secondary analysis. A number of data-analytical procedures - ranging from a comparison of means over establishing correlations with third variables in individual countries to Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) - are discussed and used to check problems in functional equivalence in an item battery on gender roles. The data base consists of several national samples (Italian, German, American, British and Hungarian) of the 1988 International Social Survey Programme study on Family and Changing Gender Roles. It is concluded that (1) ex post checking of functional equivalence is useful and necessary because (2) the related problems might have less to do with translation than with ambiguities of the concepts and/or formulations used in source instruments and with differences in the social and economic realities in the respective countries, but that (3) even secondary-analytic strategies are as a rule not conclusive and should be supplemented with methodological experiments." (author's abstract)