Validating rating scales for executive functioning across education levels and informants

Abstract

Focus Skills Questionnaire (FSQ), to assess the degree of executive functioning skills in the school context, for three different education levels (elementary, secondary, and tertiary education) and informant groups (students, teachers and parents) on a sample of 1109 students from Dutch and Belgian schools. The factor structure was evaluated by confirmative factor analysis (CFA) and the study examined how students’ self-reports of executive functioning skills related to outcomes of neuro-psychological tests of executive functions (EF). The CFA results showed a parsimonious model with a four-factor structure of the FSQ that was equivalent for all education levels and informant groups, but that does not correspond with the generally assumed executive functioning factors.