Measuring Rohingya children’s happiness through fathers’ eyes: Revisiting validity with a culturally responsive lens

Accurately assessing happiness among displaced Rohingya children is essential for designing effective psychosocial and educational interventions. This study reports the cross-cultural adaptation and Rasch validation of an existing children’s happiness instrument — originally developed in Western contexts — using father-report proxy methodology for use in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. A total of 14 dichotomous parent-report items were translated, back-translated, expert-reviewed, and pilot-tested through cognitive interviews to ensure linguistic and cultural appropriateness. Following administration of the instrument to 392 fathers of children aged 2 to 6 years, we analyzed the data using the Rasch one-parameter logistic model to examine item fit, person–item targeting, dimensionality, and differential item functioning (DIF) by fathers’ education and employment status. Eleven of 14 items fit within a priori criteria (0.79–1.20 MNSQ), yielding a person reliability of 0.68. Dimensionality analyses supported a primarily unidimensional structure with closely related social–emotional components. Three items showed a small uniform DIF by education and one by employment. A 9-item short form, refined through item-fit and DIF review, achieved improved person reliability (0.71) and retained conceptual coverage. Overall, the adapted instrument demonstrates promising internal structure and fairness evidence, supporting its use as a culturally grounded tool for humanitarian research and policy evaluation.