BIS-11A -Hindi version: A preliminary study of impulsivity in rural and urban Indian adolescents

CONTEXT: Despite of there being a pressing need to gauge impulsivity scores, there is no behavioral instrument in India to assess the impulsivity in adolescents. No earlier studies have been done in India to access impulsivity in adolescents. Even in western countries, no study has been done in rural setting to access impulsivity, although segment of rural population is small in western nations with major population residing in urban areas. AIMS: To translate BIS-11A into Hindi from English in a culturally sensitive manner and to do preliminary study in rural and urban areas. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: First translation of BIS-11 (as it is meant for adults) and cultural substitution resulted in Hindi adult version. Adolescent version was derived from adult version by replacing adult activities with adolescent activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: BIS-11 English version was translated into Hindi and a back translation was made. As BIS-11 was developed for adults, answering some of the questions poses challenges for adolescents, so to be used with adolescents, questions that do not fit into adolescent age group were substituted keeping in view the activities of adolescents. Besides, questions that were not suitable as per the Indian culture were modified. Initially, these changes were made hypothetically by discussion among the authors and later a group of 48 school students were interviewed about the questions. Based on the interviews of students a final version was prepared. Translation, back translation, cultural substitution -hypothetically, and in school by discussion were carried out. The questionnaire was given to 120 urban high school students (in Jaipur, northern India) and 50 rural students (at Kanota, 25 km from Jaipur, northern India) and the scores were calculated as per the scoring method provided with original BIS-11. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: T-test (two-tailed, two sample unequal variance, i.e., type 3) was used. RESULTS: T-test (two-tailed, two sample unequal variance, i.e., type 3) found no significant difference between impulsivity scores of adolescents of urban and rural areas t 0.05(2)1 = 0.57, |t| < t 0.05(2)1, P > 0.05, P = 12.706. There were no gender related differences either. CONCLUSIONS: As impulsivity can lead to suicide and is implicated for substance abuse in disorders like Schizophrenia, it is important that culturally sensitive impulsivity studies are done in India on a large scale keeping in view the large size of population. Standardization of the BIS11-A Hindi version is being taken up. The work on Hindi version also generates necessity for other tasks if BIS-11(Hindi version) is to be used widely. Work on psychometric properties of Hindi version of BIS-11 A is being taken up. There is a need to devise a quick way to calculate impulsivity scores keeping in view the large population of India (1 billion out of which at least 33% is Hindi speaking, Census Survey of India, 2001). Besides, BIS-11A needs to be developed for other regional languages in India as there is a high-linguistic diversity in India.