Validation

The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) is a cross-culturally valid and reliable assessment of intercultural competence. Because the items in the IDI have been found to have no cultural bias, the IDI is used in every sector across a wide range of demographics.

Publications and Independent Reviews

The extensive psychometric validation protocols used in constructing the IDI are described in greater detail in the following publications and independent reviews. These publications and independent reviews also provide information regarding the multiple research studies that have been conducted validating the IDI:

Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory (2003)

This article describes the initial process of item generation for the IDI. Researchers interviewed individuals from different cultural communities about their experiences with cultural differences and items reflect real experiences of these interviewees.

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Additional cross-cultural validity testing of the Intercultural Development Inventory (2011)

This study represents additional cross-cultural validity testing for the IDI, including demonstration of predictive validity.

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2016 IDI Validation ACS Independent Review (Phase 3)

This summary describes further validation of the IDI by additional independent research on over 218,000 IDI respondents.

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“The IDI has been validated cross-culturally as a valid and reliable self-assessment of cultural understanding. The IDC clearly lays out developmental cultural awareness stages from a non-judgmental perspective that avoids defensiveness and allows for targeted training approaches and increased self-awareness. The IDI has provided me a concrete metric for moving forward with my own growth in intercultural competencies. Even though I have been doing equity work for a long time, it gave me new insights and enabled me to think about my development in new and productive ways.”

Drea Gallaga

Director, Live+Serve Laboratory; North Shore Country Day School

The IDI Fully Meets Instrument Development Criteria

  • Confirmation of the underlying theoretical framework of the IDI—the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC)©
  • Strong “content” validity
  • Perspectives of people from a wide range of international and domestic cultural groups
  • Strong “constuct” validity
  • Does not contain cultural bias
  • Strong “predictive” validity in organizations and education Institutions
  • Validity and reliability results confirmed in large, multicultural samples
  • Readability analysis of the IDI indicates the IDI is appropriate for individuals 15 years of age or higher
  • Developmental Orientation and Perceived Orientation scores are highly reliable