Understanding and Serving Adolescent Females with Emotional Disabilities and Executive Dysfunction in a Residential Treatment Setting

Executive functioning has become an important part of helping to understand and serve students with academic and emotional disabilities (EDs). This study sought to understand the profile of female student with ED in a residential treatment center. First, the study investigated the validity of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Parent Rating Scale (BRIEF). The BRIEF is an 86-item checklist that covered eight different aspects of EF. Each item was a statement in which the case manager of each of the 93 students responded never, sometimes, or often. These scales included (1) inhibit, (2) shift, (3) emotional control, (4) initiate, (5) working memory, (6) plan/organize, (7) organization of materials, and (8) monitor. The majority of the 93 participants demonstrated executive dysfunction. Next, divergent validity of the BRIEF was investigated using a principal components analysis. The Basic Academic Skills Inventory (BASI) was used to evaluate the reading and math abilities of participants. The relationship between the BRIEF and the BASI was investigated using a correlation analysis. One factor best explained the structure of the BRIEF and correlated moderately with measures of academics. It is clear that executive functioning is a critical area that we must consider as part of our usual psychological evaluation/intervention tools. Many students with emotional and academic difficulties will benefit from executive functioning interventions such as directing student attention, help in planning, and homework organization management skills. How these findings should relate to the role of school and clinical psychologists will be addressed.