Psychometric properties of the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised in Chinese college students.
The MRAI-R attitude scale doesn’t hold up psychometrically with Chinese college students—consider culture-specific tools instead.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hampton et al. (2008) tested the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised on Chinese college students. They wanted to see if the scale measures attitudes the same way in China as in the West.
Students filled out the 29-item survey. Researchers ran factor analysis and checked internal consistency.
What they found
The full scale had modest reliability, but the four subscales did not hold together. The expected four-factor model did not fit the Chinese data.
In plain words, the MRAI-R does not work the same way in China. Culture seems to change how people answer.
How this fits with other research
McIntyre et al. (2017) and Liu et al. (2022) show the opposite story. Their Chinese translations of the AIR Self-Determination Scale and Social Communication Questionnaire both fit well and showed good reliability.
The difference is not the language—it is the tool. Some scales translate cleanly; others need culture-specific rewrites. Hampton et al. (2008) warn us not to assume a Western scale will travel.
Ferrari et al. (1991) and Rojahn et al. (1994) found similar reliability problems with the Motivation Assessment Scale in English. Poor subscale reliability can happen anywhere when the original factor structure is weak.
Why it matters
Before you use any translated attitude or stigma scale, run your own reliability check. If the subscales break apart, switch to a culture-specific tool or build new items with local input. Your data—and your clients—deserve measures that actually fit.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: This study examines the psychometric properties of the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory-Revised (MRAI-R; Antonak & Harth) in Chinese college students. The research questions included: (1) Is the MRAI-R a reliable measure for Chinese college student? (2) Is the MRAI-R related to familiarity with people with intellectual disabilities (PWID) and professional training? and (3) Does the four-factor model of the MRAI-R fit the Chinese college student data? METHOD: Five hundred and thirty-four college students from China participated in the study. Descriptive, Pearson product-moment correlation, Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient and factor analyses were used to examine the reliability and validity of the MRAI-R in this Chinese college student sample. RESULTS: The alpha coefficient reliability of the total scale of the MRAI-R was 0.78. The alpha coefficient reliabilities for the integration-segregation (INSE) subscale, the social distance (SDIS) subscale, the private rights (PRRT) subscale and the subtle derogatory beliefs (SUDB) subscale were 0.50 (INSE), 0.78 (SDIS), 0.50 (PRRT) and 0.21 (SUDB) respectively. Correlation analyses indicated that familiarity with PWID and professional training had a weak correlation with attitudes towards PWID. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the standardized factor loadings and goodness-of-fit indices were inadequate (the chi-square/degrees of freedom ratio = 3.24; the goodness-of-fit index = 0.85; the comparative fit index = 0.69; the RMSEA* = 0.07). A principal axis factoring analysis (PAF) with oblique rotation identified three factors with 25% of the variance accounted for the sample. However, the results of this PAF were factorial complex and not interpretable in that many items of the scale had double loadings on more than one factor. CONCLUSIONS: The factor structure of the MRAI-R in this sample of Chinese college students did not replicate the structure found in American adults. Although the SDIS subscale of the MRAI-R appeared to be a reliable instrument among the four subscales of the MRAI-R, the reliabilities of the INSE, PRRT and SUDB subscales were low. Continuing investigations of the utility of the MRAI-R in Chinese culture is needed. Attitude instruments based on Chinese culture may be developed.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2008 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2007.01020.x