Age: 18 through to 90yrs
The BRIEF-A is a standardised measure that captures views of an adult's executive functions or self-regulation in his or her everyday environment. Two formats are used--a self-report and an informant report. The Self-Report Form is designed to be completed by adults 18-90 years of age, including adults with a wide variety of developmental, systemic, neurological, and psychiatric disorders such as attention disorders, learning difficulties, autism spectrum disorders, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, depression, mild cognitive impairment, dementias, and schizophrenia. The Informant Report Form is administered to an adult informant who is familiar with the rated individual's everyday functioning. It can be used alone when the rated individual is unable to complete the Self-Report Form or has limited awareness of his or her own difficulties, or with the Self-Report Form to gain multiple perspectives on the individual's functioning. When administered in conjunction with the Self-Report Form, the BRIEF-A Informant Report Form provides a more clinically comprehensive picture of the individual being rated.
The BRIEF-A, based on the original Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function™ (BRIEF™), is composed of 75 items within nine nonoverlapping theoretically and empirically derived clinical scales that measure various aspects of executive functioning.
- Task Monitor
- Emotional Control
- Working Memory
- Organisation of Materials
The clinical scales form two broader indexes: Behavioural Regulation (BRI) and Metacognition (MI), and these indexes form the overall summary score, the Global Executive Composite (GEC). The BRIEF-A also includes three validity scales (Negativity, Inconsistency, and Infrequency).
The BRIEF-A materials consist of the Professional Manual, the carbonless Self-Report Form, the carbonless Informant Report Form, the Self-Report Scoring Summary/Profile Form, and the Informant Report Scoring Summary/Profile Form. The BRIEF-A can be used in research and clinical settings by neuropsychologists, psychologists, physicians, and rehabilitation professionals.
The BRIEF-A was standardised and validated for use with men and women from ages 18-90 years. The normative sample includes adults from a wide range of racial/ethnic backgrounds, educational backgrounds, as well as geographic regions that are matched to U.S. Census data (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002).
Reliability and Validity
The BRIEF-A has demonstrated evidence of reliability, validity, and clinical utility as an ecologically sensitive measure of executive functioning in individuals with a range of conditions across a wide age range.
- Internal consistency was moderate to high for the Self-Report normative sample (alpha range = .73-.90 for clinical scales; .93-.96 for indexes and GEC) and high for the Informant Report normative sample (alpha range = .80-.93 for clinical scales; .95-.98 for indexes and GEC).
- Using a mixed sample of clinical or healthy adults who were seen for clinical evaluation or research study participation, internal consistency was high for the Self-Report Form (alpha range = .80-.94 for clinical scales; .96-.98 for indexes and GEC) and the Informant Report Form (alpha range = .85-.95 for clinical scales; .96-.98 for indexes and GEC).
- Test-retest correlations across the clinical scales ranged from .82-.93 over an average interval of 4.22 weeks for the Self-Report Form (n = .50) and ranged from .91-.94 over an average interval of 4.21 weeks for the Informant Report Form (n = .44).
- Correlations between Self-Report ratings and Informant Report ratings were moderate, ranging from .44-.68 for the clinical scales and from .61-.63 for the indexes and the GEC.
- In terms of convergent validity, the Self- and Informant Report Form of the BRIEF-A scales, indexes, and GEC demonstrated significant correlations in the expected direction with self- and informant reports on the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX), and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ).
- Validity was further demonstrated via profiles of BRIEF-A scores in clinical populations such as ADHD, multiple sclerosis, and traumatic brain injury.
- Validity studies also are reported in the Professional Manual comparing the BRIEF-A with the Clinical Assessment of Depression (CAD), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).
- Factor analysis of Self-Report Form data yielded a 2-factor solution (i.e., Behavioral Regulation, Metacognition) for normative and mixed clinical/healthy adult samples, accounting for 73% and 76% of the variance, respectively. Factor analysis of Informant Report Form data also yielded a similar 2-factor solution for the normative and mixed clinical/healthy adult samples, accounting for 81% and 78% of the variance, respectively.