Table 3 Synthesis of needed equivalence changes to develop the PEM-CY (German)

Semantic equivalence

A similar semantic expression

• “community”

• “societal” (G: “gesellschaftlich”)

• “involvement”

• “engagement” (G: “Engagement”)

• “participation”

• “participation” G: “Teilhabe”

• “children”

• “children and adolescents”

• (G: “Kinder und Jugendliche ”)

Idiomatic equivalence

Less misleading expression

• “the child”- he or she

• neutral form (it) (G: “es”)

• “assignment” and “homework”

• “homework and assignments” (G: “Hausaufgaben”)

• “climate”

• “seasonal conditions” (G: “Jahreszeiten”)

Experiential equivalence

Words that represent culturally based experiences

• activity examples used in the original PEM-CY that are not common for children in the targeted countries: “Brownies”, “mentoring”, “lunchroom supervisor”, “public speaking”, “working in a store”, “baseball”

• removed uncommon examples and added new examples: “playing Lego©”, “showering”, “learning vocabulary”, “going to school”, “bullying and misuse”, “soccer”, “skiing”, “walking”, “salary during apprenticeship and internship”.

• “Video gaming” is the first group of activities in the home setting

• “Video gaming” moved and is now the third group of activities in in the home setting

• school participation: response option “daily”

• school participation – response option changed to “daily at school days”

• school participation

• kindergarten and school participation

• “neighborhood”

• “visits in public area”

Conceptual equivalence

Covering linguistically the same logic, meaning or mental images

Additional information:

 • enhanced definition of “participation” and “environment”

 • added information about the possible age of children (5–17 years)

 • explained that it is not about independence

 • included the time frame of four months on each page

 • added encouragement to fill in school setting despite little knowledge

 • instructed global thinking in the “environmental sections”

 • provided examples for all environmental items

Structural changes:

 • add headings for all participation aspects (frequency, involvement, desire for change)

 • insert “activity group” as subheading

 • make thicker lines between options for wishes for changes

 • highlight “Skip to C”

 • explain environment and settings on each page

 • repetition of “environmental factor” in possible answers

 • present all questions with the same answer format in the environment part on the same page.

 • added line for possible comments for desired changes in participation