Abstract:
As a main dimension of intercultural communication competence, intercultural sensitivity has increasingly gained attention in research in different disciplines. In the United States, Chen and Starosta have developed an instrument, comprising 5 factors with 24 items, for measuring intercultural sensitivity. In this study, we tested Chen and Starosta's instrument in a German sample by using confirmatory factor analysis. Overall, the results showed that the instrument holds satisfactorily. Although the results also suggested that the operationalization of the concepts in Chen and Starosta's study can be further improved, the instrument as a whole is a valid one through which a culture-free scale for measuring intercultural sensitivity can be developed.
