Bringing human rights to social work: validating culturally appropriate instruments to measure rights-based practice in Spain

Abstract

This article describes the Spanish-language translation and cross-cultural validation of two scales – Human Rights Engagement in Social Work and Human Rights Exposure in Social Work. These scales, measuring human rights awareness and commitment among social workers, were first validated in the United States. In this study, the scales were translated and adapted for the Spanish political and cultural context, and then validated in a sample of 498 social work students at three universities in Spain. The process produced two valid and reliable Spanish-language measures to explore human rights awareness and commitment in social work.