Validation of the Spanish SIRS: Beyond Linguistic Equivalence in the Assessment of Malingering among Spanish Speaking Clinical Populations Page: 2

                                
Correa, Amor Alicia. Validation of the Spanish SIRS: Beyond Linguistic Equivalence in
the Assessment of Malingering among Spanish Speaking Clinical Populations. Master of Science
(Psychology), August 2010, 110 pp., 20 tables, references, 155 titles.
Malingering is the deliberate production of feigned symptoms by a person seeking
external gain such as: financial compensation, exemption from duty, or leniency from the
criminal justice system. The Test Translation and Adaptation Guidelines developed by the
International Test Commission (ITC) specify that only tests which have been formally translated
into another language and validated should be available for use in clinical practice. Thus, the
current study evaluated the psychometric properties of a Spanish translation of the Structured
Interview of Reported Symptoms. Using a simulation design with 80 Spanish-speaking Hispanic
American outpatients, the Spanish SIRS was produced reliable results with small standard errors
of measurement (SEM). Regarding discriminant validity, very large effect sizes (mean Cohen's d
= 2.00) were observed between feigners and honest responders for the SIRS primary scales.
Research limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.