84 Preliminary Psychometric Examination of a Short Questionnaire of Executive Functions
Authors: Karr Justin E. 
Published: December 2023

Objective:

The behavioral assessment of executive functions has become increasingly common in clinical practice, with a self-report measure of executive functions becoming one of the most commonly administered assessment instruments of the construct in clinical practice. These subjective measurements serve as an alternative to objective tests of executive functions, which have been criticized for poor ecological validity. Many behavioral measures of executive functions are now available, but there are some issues with those currently in use, in that many are lengthy, proprietary, and/or do not measure executive functions that align with a theoretical framework of the multidimensional construct. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of a new short questionnaire of executive functions designed to be concise, theoretically based, and ultimately freely available for use in research and clinical practice.

Participants and Methods:

Participants included 575 college undergraduate students who completed an online questionnaire to earn credit in psychology courses. They were, on average, 18.9 years-old (SD=1.0, range: 18-22), 82.4% female, and 78.8% White. All participants completed 20 self-report items on a four-point ordinal scale measuring five theorized executive function constructs of Planning, Inhibition, Working Memory, Shifting, and Emotional Control. The 20 items were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and factor reliabilities were estimated using omega. As a validity analysis, correlations between the total score with measures of subjective cognition and ADHD symptoms were compared to correlations between the total score with measures of anxiety and depression, hypothesizing stronger correlations of executive functions with cognition and ADHD than negative affect.

Results:

The initial 20-item model did not fit well, x2=1560.10, df=160, p<.0001, CFI=0.822, TLI=0.788, RMSEA=0.130 (90% CI: 0.1240.136). The polychoric inter-item correlations were examined for high cross-factor correlations and low intra-factor correlations. This process resulted in the removal of one item from each factor, The modified model, inclusive of 15 items, presented with adequate fit to the data, X2=470.56, df=80, p<.0001, CFI=0.936, TLI=0.916, RMSEA=0.097 (90% CI: 0.0890.106). The total score has good reliability (Q=.82), whereas estimates for each factor ranged from .56 to .79. The total score showed a stronger correlation with ADHD symptoms (r=-.59) and subjective cognition (r=.59) than depression (r=.46, z=4.05, p<.001) and anxiety symptoms (r=.38, z=6.29, p<.001).

Conclusions:

These preliminary findings provided modest psychometric support for this short 15-item self-report questionnaire of executive functions. The questionnaire had acceptable fit and evidence for validity, in that the total executive function score had a stronger correlation with subjective cognitive complaints and ADHD symptoms than negative affect. The reliability of some individual factors fell below conventional cutoffs for acceptable reliability, indicating a need for further refinement of this new questionnaire.