Cross-cultural validity and reliability of the BRIEF-P at age 2 and 4.5 years in children born at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia

ABSTRACT

Executive function (EF) encompasses several neurocognitive processes that are important in self-regulation of behavior and the attainment of social and cognitive competencies. While much progress has been made in developing valid measures for adult and adolescent EF, there is a dearth of valid measures for preschool children. Given the steep trajectory of neuropsychological development among this age group and the importance of EF, a valid measure for clinical assessment and research is needed that can capture EF in the everyday context of early childhood. The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function Preschool Version (BRIEF-P) measures parent and teacher observations of children’s everyday self-regulatory behaviors. The BRIEF-P has been validated in a range of normative and non-normative samples, but further validation is needed across cultures. This study aimed to evaluate the cross-cultural validity and reliability of the BRIEF-P when used by New Zealand Māori (n = 131) and European (n = 193) parents of children born with risk factors of neonatal hypoglycemia. Parents of children who participated in the prospective, longitudinal Children with Hypoglycemia and their Later Development (CHYLD) study completed the BRIEF-P when the child was 2 years ±4 weeks and 4.5 years ±8 weeks old. Results showed that the BRIEF-P is a highly reliable and valid instrument. Comparisons between Māori and New Zealand European samples revealed biases, which could be a source of further work to improve the construct validity of this measure, such as the development of norms and item validation for non-European and non-Western samples.

KEYWORDS:

• BRIEF-P
• cross-cultural
• reliability
• validity
• Executive function

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the parents who participated in this study and the members of the CHYLD (Children with Hypoglycemia and their Later Development) Study Team (Appendix S1). We would particularly like to thank members of the Steering Committee, who read and made suggestions about the analysis and content of this paper including, Jane Alsweiler, Department of Paediatrics; Child and Youth Health, University of Auckland, Gavin Brown, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland. J. Geoffery Chase, Department of Engineering, University of Canterbury, Jane Harding, Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Deborah Harris, Newborn Intensive Care Unit, Waikato District Health Board, Ben Thompson, School of Optometry, and Vision Science, University of Waterloo.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2022.2093340.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant R01HD069622 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, by grant 10-399 from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, by the Auckland Medical Research Foundation, and by Gravida, National Research Centre for Growth and Development, New Zealand.