title: Assessing effortful control in typical and atypical development: Are questionnaires and neuropsychological measures interchangeable? A latent-variable analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Effortful control (EC), the self-regulation component of temperament, is traditionally measured using questionnaires. Through the years, several neuropsychological measures originating from the cognitive psychology and the executive function (EF) literature have been introduced in the domain of temperament research to tap EC. Although this is not particularly surprising, given the conceptual overlap between EC and EF, it remains unclear whether EC questionnaires and neuropsychological EF tasks can really be used interchangeably when measuring EC. The current study addressed two important aspects in evaluating the interchangeability of both types of measures, that is: (a) do they measure the same construct? and (b) do they give the same results when comparing clinical populations?
  
  
  METHODS
  Three EC questionnaires, two inhibitory control tasks, and two attentional control tasks were administered in 148 typically developing children, 30 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 31 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). All children were between 10 and 15 years of age and had a full scale IQ of 80 or higher.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the questionnaires and EF tasks do not capture the same underlying latent variable(s). Groups could not be differentiated from each other based on their performance on EF tasks, whereas significant group differences were found for all EC-reports.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, our findings show more differences than commonalities between the EC questionnaires and EF tasks and, consequently, suggest that both types of measures should not be used interchangeably.
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: vicky_samyn@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Vicky
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Samyn
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Herbert.Roeyers@UGent.be.
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Roeyers
authors.affiliation: University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 - bus 3720, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: Patricia.Bijttebier@psy.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bijttebier
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Yves.Rosseel@UGent.be.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rosseel
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Roeljan.Wiersema@UGent.be.
authors.forename: Jan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wiersema
keywords: ADHD; ASD; Effortful control; Neuropsychological measures; Temperament questionnaires