Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural (3MC) Surveys

Joe Ripberger

Survey projects conducted across multiple nations, regions, or cultures with the goal of producing comparable data that describe, explain, and compare social phenomena within and between populations
- Multinational: conducted in two or more countries
- Multiregional: conducted across subnational regions (e.g., provinces, states, or linguistic regions)
- Multicultural: compares cultural or ethnic groups, whether or not they are within the same country
The key feature of 3MC surveys is their emphasis on comparability—goal is to ensure that differences in results reflect true population differences, not artifacts of measurement, translation, or implementation

Why 3MC Surveys?

Enable cross-national comparisons of attitudes, behaviors, and social conditions
Inform international policy, such as health, education, and climate initiatives
Provide insights into cultural similarities and differences
Raise unique methodological and ethical challenges not present in single-country surveys

Translation and adaptation: achieving conceptual, linguistic, and cultural equivalence in survey questions and response options
Sampling and coverage: designing probability samples that are representative and comparable across diverse frames and population structures
Mode and implementation differences: balancing data collection modes (web, phone, face-to-face) and fieldwork procedures across countries and regions
Measurement equivalence: testing for configural, metric, and scalar invariance to verify that constructs are interpreted similarly across groups

Data harmonization: integrating datasets with differing formats, variables, and coding schemes while maintaining documentation and transparency
Ethical and legal constraints: navigating variation in privacy laws, informed consent standards, and data-sharing regulations
Coordination and governance: managing multinational teams, timelines, and funding structures while maintaining consistent quality standards

Translation is a critical step in ensuring that survey questions are understood consistently across languages and cultures
Common translation approaches include:
- Forward translation: translating the instrument from the source language into the target language by a bilingual expert
- Back translation: translating the instrument back into the source language by a different bilingual expert to check for accuracy and meaning
- Committee approach: involving multiple translators and subject-matter experts to compare versions, discuss discrepancies, and agree on the best wording

Survey literacy: respondents’ familiarity with how surveys work—their understanding of expectations, roles, and conventions
- Survey-literate respondents:
  - Recognize their role is to choose responses that best represent their experiences
  - Understand that answers contribute to broader research goals
  - Navigate question formats, response scales, and vocabulary with ease
- Less survey-literate respondents:
  - Struggle to orient to the survey task or grasp its purpose
  - Have difficulty interpreting terms, using scales, or matching experiences to categories
  - May feel anxious or fatigued, leading to response error or nonresponse

Focus groups: collect qualitative feedback from diverse cultural groups to refine question wording and format
Cognitive interviewing: pretest questions with respondents from different cultures to uncover comprehension issues and cultural nuances
Pilot testing: conduct small-scale field tests in each target population to evaluate question performance and comparability
Statistical techniques: apply confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) or item response theory (IRT) to assess measurement equivalence across groups

Goal: Apply key concepts from today’s lecture by designing a small, multinational, multiregional, or multicultural (3MC) survey project.
First step: Form groups of 3–4 students. Each group will design a study that compares attitudes, behaviors, or experiences across at least three distinct populations (countries, regions, or cultures).

Develop a short plan that describes:

Research question: what are you trying to understand or compare?
Populations: which countries, regions, or cultural groups will you include? why?
Question design: develop a few example survey questions and discuss why and how you might need to ask them differently across populations (e.g., translation, cultural norms, response formats)
Measurement strategy: how will you ensure conceptual and linguistic equivalence?
Sampling and mode: how will you obtain comparable samples and data collection methods?
Pretesting and validation: how will you check for measurement equivalence?

Tip

Keep it simple. Focus on designing a conceptually clear and culturally comparable study rather than a perfect or large-scale one.