Validation of three adaptations of the Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) to German, English and Polish

Abstract

The Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) is a parent-report questionnaire for assessing auditory behaviour in aurally habilitated children. This study addressed the reliability and convergent validity of three different language versions of the MAIS: English, German, and Polish. In total, 114 parents (English, n = 27: Polish, n = 37; German, n = 50) completed the MAIS preoperatively and at 6 months after cochlear implantation. Internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha) ranged from 0.92 to 0.95 preoperatively, and from 0.87 to 0.93 at 6 months. Split-half reliability was at least 0.90 preoperatively, and ranged from 0.76 to 0.89 at 6 months. Corrected item-total correlation coefficients were significant (p < 0.05) for all items except for item 1, which showed poor correlations in the Polish version. Correlation of the MAIS with the Listening Progress Profile (LP), as a measure for convergent validity, yielded coefficients between 0.81 and 0.73 preoperatively, and between 0.79 and 0.61 at 6 months. These findings demonstrate high reliability and convergent validity of the three MAIS versions.