Self-report measure assessing adult executive functioning/self-regulation.
Rob M. Roth, Ph.D., Peter K. Isquith, Ph.D., and Gerard A. Gioia, Ph.D.

• Age Range: 18-90 years
• Time: 15 minutes

The BRIEF-A is a standardized 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.

1. 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 disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, depression, mild cognitive impairment, dementias, and schizophrenia.
2. 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 Behavior 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.

1. Inhibit
2. Self-Monitor
3. Plan/Organize
4. Shift
5. Initiate
6. Task Monitor
7. Emotional Control
8. Working Memory
9. Organization of Materials

The clinical scales form two broader indexes: Behavioral 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 was standardized 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. Bureau of the Census, 2002).

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.

The BRIEF-A Kit includes the Manual and 25 each of the Self-Report Forms, Informant Report Forms, Self-Report Scoring Summary/Profile Forms and Informant Report Scoring Summary/Profile Forms.