Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS): Adaptation and Validity Evidence

Abstract Executive functions are skills that allow an individual to direct their cognitive, behavioral and emotional functioning to goal achievement. In order to evaluate them, there are few ecologically valid instruments. Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS) was developed to overcome this limitation. The objective of this study was to adapt and investigate BADS content validity for the Brazilian context. Three translations of the instrument from English into Portuguese were done, and were later synthesized into a single version to be sent to three judges. Subsequently, BADS was applied to a focus group (5 healthy adults) and a pilot study (40 clinical neurological patients, with Parkinson's Disease). The calculation of the total content validity coefficient was considered acceptable (> 0.80); and the average coefficient kappa subtests was 0.55 and the survey was 0.75, moderate and solid, respectively. The data suggest that BADS can be used in further studies to investigate other psychometric properties as construct validity, reliability and standardization.