Strategies for achieving cultural equivalence.

The strategy used by a bicultural research team of Anglos and Mexican Americans to develop cultural equivalence in a cross-cultural study of family caregiving is described. Five sequential stages designed to address Berry's (1969) criteria for cross-cultural research (functional equivalence, a comparative descriptive framework, and language equivalence) are described, including (a) start-up, (b) preparation, (c) pilot testing for language equivalence, (d) pilot testing for operational equivalence, and (e) reevaluation.