Abstract

This study involved a psychometric evaluation of the Short Executive Function Scale (SEFS), a new 15-item self-report questionnaire measuring five constructs: Planning, Inhibition, Working Memory, Shifting, and Emotional Control. Participants included 717 U.S. undergraduate students (M = 18.9 years old, SD = 1.9; 78.8% cisgender female, 81.7% White) who completed the SEFS. A subset of 156 participants (M = 18.8 years old, SD = 0.9; 79.5% cisgender female, 83.3% White) completed the SEFS again at 2- to 3-month retest along with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult (BRIEF-A) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8). The five-factor model fit well (CFI = 0.941, RMSEA = 0.079) and each scale had acceptable internal consistency (v range: .68–.81) and test–retest reliability (ICC range: .75–.89). Apart from Shifting, all SEFS scales had significantly larger convergent validity coefficients with their respective BRIEF-A scales (r range: 2.25 to 2.70) than discriminant validity coefficients with the PHQ-8 (r range: 2.06 to 2.28). These findings provide preliminary psychometric support for the SEFS.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Notes/Citation Information

© The Author(s) 2024

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911231223122

Funding Information

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported, in part, by a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) grant (#K12-DA035150) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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