Multidomain self-report assessment of fronto-executive complaints in Spanish-speaking adults

Abstract

The assessment of subjective cognitive complaints (e.g., lack of initiative, difficulty for planning, attentional and memory impairment, disinhibition, etc.) that impair daily life functioning and psychopathological risk, requires integrative psychometrics. The creation of culturally relevant instruments is one of the challenges of Hispanic neuropsychology because tools developed in Latin America are scarce. Thus, the objective was to investigate the Executive Complaints Questionnaire (ECQ) psychometric properties, which is proposed herein as an appropriate multidomain instrument to assess executive functions in Spanish speakers (N = 672) from Argentina (i.e., one of the most populated Hispanic countries). They were randomly divided into 2 groups (N = 336) to evaluate construct validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The total variance depended on 3 factors: Executive Attention (23%), Behavioral Flexibility (20%), and Inhibitory Control (13%). This structure was further verified through confirmatory factor analysis and provided an adequate model. Reliability processes (i.e., Cronbach´s alpha, composite reliability, and interitem correlations) indicated that the ECQ was reliable. Divergent validity was achieved and no effects of age, gender, and educational level were found. In conclusion, the ECQ is a reliable and structurally valid instrument. This is the first study that employed a self-reporting questionnaire of executive complaints that was originated in the Spanish-speaking population by integrating different fronto-executive domains. This kind of study provides the methodological approach to promote new questionnaire development and standardization of the already-existing ones to be precisely dedicated for non-English-speaking populations, who do not possess valid instruments in their native languages.