Examining Rater Agreement After Changing the Response Format of the BRIEF

Abstract

Deficits in Executive Function (EF) have been demonstrated in various types of childhood psychopathology. Current clinical practice encourages evaluating deficits in EF across multiple perspectives. The BRIEF is a parent- and teacher-completed rating scale designed to measure EF deficits in children. Previous studies have reported inconsistent interrater agreement (IRA) and interrater reliability (IRR) between parent and teachers. Differences in ratings may be influenced by the response format, begging the question whether a change in response format will improve IRA and IRR between parent- and teacher-completed BRIEF rating scales. Parents and teachers completed the BRIEF and BRIEF-R and mean differences, correlations, and Intraclass correlations (ICCs) were computed. Smaller mean differences and effect sizes between parent and teacher ratings revealed higher IRA for the BRIEF-R. There tended to be a slight rater preference for the BRIEF-R. Implications for rating differences and rater-reported preference of the BRIEF-R are discussed.