Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function

Gerard A. Gioia, PhD, Peter K. Isquith, PhD, Steven C. Guy, PhD, Lauren Kenworthy, PhD

Purpose: Assess impairment of executive function

Age: 5 through to18 yrs
Admin: Individual
Time: 10-15 minutes to administer; 15-20 minutes to score

The BRIEF consists of two rating forms--a parent questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire--designed to assess executive functioning in the home and school environments. The BRIEF is useful in evaluating children with a wide spectrum of developmental and acquired neurological conditions, such as:

    * Learning disabilities.
    * Low birth weight.
    * Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
    * Tourette's disorder.
    * Traumatic brain injury.
    * Pervasive developmental disorders/autism.

Each BRIEF questionnaire contains 86 items in eight nonoverlapping clinical scales and two validity scales. These theoretically and statistically derived scales form two broader Indexes: Behavioral Regulation (three scales) and Metacognition (five scales), as well as a Global Executive Composite score. Factor analytic studies and structural equation modeling provide support for the two-factor model of executive functioning as encompassed by the two Indexes. Validity scales measure Negativity and Inconsistency of responses.

INDEXES	Clinical scales
Behavioral Regulation	Inhibit, Shift, Emotional Control
Metacognition

Initiate, Working Memory, Plan/Organize, Organization of Materials, Monitor

    * Reliability--High internal consistency (alphas = .80-.98); test-retest reliability (rs = .82 for parents and .88 for teachers); and moderate correlations between teacher and parent ratings (rs = .32-.34).
    * Validity--Convergent validity established with other measures of inattention, impulsivity, and learning skills; divergent validity demonstrated against measures of emotional and behavioral functioning; Working Memory and Inhibit scales differentiate among ADHD subtypes.
    * Normative data based on child ratings from 1,419 parents and 720 teachers from rural, suburban, and urban areas, reflecting 1999 U.S. Census estimates for SES, ethnicity, and gender distribution.
    * Separate normative tables for both the parent and teacher forms provide T scores, percentiles, and 90% confidence intervals for four developmental age groups (5-18 years) by gender of the child.
    * Clinical sample included children with developmental disorders or acquired neurological disorders (e.g., Reading Disorder, ADHD subtypes, TBI, Tourette's disorder, mental retardation, localized brain lesions, high functioning autism).