Design of culturally-appropriate developmental interventions

Abstract

Introduction

Developmental interventions often cite an effort to make an intervention “culturally appropriate” or “culturally sensitive,” and many applied developmental scientists view such appropriateness or sensitivity as a desirable property of interventions. At the same time, “cultural appropriateness” remains largely undefined, unmeasured, and consequently of untested virtue. We, the developmental scientists, often refrain from conceptually discussing or operationalizing “cultural appropriateness.” Hence, “cultural appropriateness” remains a slogan rather than a well-defined and measured property of developmental interventions.

The lack of a conceptual definition and an operationalization of cultural appropriateness of interventions are not without consequences. An effort to develop a culturally appropriate intervention without well articulated conceptual guidance may lead to well-meaning but perhaps unnecessary or even undesirable modifications of an intervention, without the possibility of evaluating whether those modifications were cost-effective or whether they contribute to the effectiveness of the intervention. Furthermore, cultural appropriateness may be a quantitative, rather than a qualitative, property.