Executive Skills Questionnaire – Revised (ESQ-R)

The Executive Skills Questionnaire–Revised (ESQ–R) is a 25-item, self-report measure of executive functioning skills (Strait et al., 2020). The ESQ-R assesses five areas of executive functioning:

• Plan Management
• Time Management
• Organization
• Emotional Regulation
• Behavioral Regulation

Example ESQ-R Items

Clinicians use the ESQ-R to identify strengths and weaknesses in executive functioning which can be important in people with developmental differences such as ADHD and Autism. The ESQ-R is also used in educational settings to identify individuals with executive functioning skills deficits that may impact learning and academic performance. It can also be used to detect changes in executive functioning skills within an individual and thereby assess the impact of treatment and intervention strategies aimed at improving their executive functioning.

Research shows that people diagnosed with ADHD tend to have more difficulty with behavioral regulation, while people diagnosed with autism tend to have difficulties with planning and flexibility (Craig et al., 2016). Treatment and intervention strategies aimed at strengthening such areas of executive functioning may be beneficial for improving outcomes in these and other clinical populations.

The self-report nature of the ESQ-R relies on a client’s effective self-monitoring. In circumstances where a client’s self-monitoring or reflective capacity is compromised, the results may not be reliable. In these circumstances direct cognitive performance tasks or neuropsychological tests are indicated. It is also important to recognise that the ESQ-R measures executive functioning skills as opposed to core executive functions (such as working memory, inhibition, and shifting/flexibility; Miyake et al., 2000). This is an important distinction as these core executive functions facilitate the higher-order executive functioning skills that the ESQ-R measures. The higher-order executive functioning skills that the ESQ-R measures may be more amenable to amelioration through behavioral interventions (Strait et al., 2020), in contrast to the core executive functions, which are more inherent or stable attributes that typically remain unchanged despite intervention (Aksayli, Sala, & Gobet, 2019).

The Executive Skills Questionnaire–Revised (ESQ–R) yields a total score between 0 and 75, with higher scores indicating more (frequent) difficulties with executive functioning skills (Strait et al., 2020). Each item is rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale from 0 to 3 reflecting the frequency with which a respondent experiences a specific difficulty. The 25 items cover five areas of executive functioning, as follows.

Plan Management (Items 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, and 24)
Ability to create and manage plans for accomplishing tasks. This factor includes the executive skills of planning/prioritisation, sustained attention, flexibility, metacognition, emotional control, and goal-directed persistence.

Time Management (Items 10, 11, 15, and 20)
Ability to organize various aspects of time, including estimating and allocating time and working within time constraints. This factor includes the executive skills of time management, task initiation, and working memory.

Organization (Items 3, 8, and 9)
Ability to create and maintain systems and keep track of information or materials. This factor includes the executive skills of working memory and organization.

Emotional Regulation (Items 4, 5, and 21)
Ability to manage emotions to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior. This factor includes the executive skill of emotional control.

Behavioral Regulation (Items 1, 2, 19, and 25)
Ability to manage behavior (avoid undesirable behaviors, increase desirable behaviors), think before acting or responding, and consider the consequences of actions. This factor includes the executive skills of response inhibition and goal-directed persistence.

The total score is presented as a percentile relative to a sample of working adults, contextualising the respondent’s score relative to the typical level of (difficulties with) executive functioning skills in the community. For example, the 50th percentile represents the typical level of challenges with executive functioning skills.

The scoring approach uses qualitative descriptors to categorise the total score. Each qualitative descriptor corresponds to a specific range of percentiles (Nasir et al., 2021).

• Low Difficulties (less than or equal to the 10th percentile)
• Below Average Difficulties (percentile between 10 and 24)
• Average Difficulties (percentile between 25 and 75)
• Above Average Difficulties (percentile between 76 and 89)
• High Difficulties (greater than or equal to the 90th percentile)

An above average or high score suggests that the respondent has clinically significant challenges with executive functioning skills. Used as part of an assessment for neurodivergence, people diagnosed with ADHD tend to have more difficulty with behavioral regulation, while people diagnosed with autism tend to have difficulties with planning and flexibility (Craig et al., 2016). Patterns of responding on the subscales can provide an executive functioning profile that can be used as part of comprehensive assessments.

For each of the five areas of executive functioning, the respondent’s average score is presented together with a descriptor of the level of difficulty. The descriptors and average rating value ranges are as follows:

• No or Low Difficulty: 0-1
• Moderate Difficulty: 1.01-1.99
• High Difficulty: 2-3

Areas of executive functioning with the “High Difficulty” descriptor warrant further exploration because it indicates that the respondent often or very often faces challenges in those areas.

If administered more than once, a meaningful change in difficulties with executive functioning skills is defined as a change of 5 or more points in the total score based on a Minimally Important Difference (MID) calculation.

The Executive Skills Questionnaire–Revised (ESQ–R; Strait et al., 2020) has excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .91) and adequate test-retest reliability (r = .70). Internal consistency estimates for the five factors are .89 for Plan Management (11 items), .74 for Time Management (4 items), .76 for Organization (3 items), .75 for Emotional Regulation (3 items), and .65 for Behavioral Regulation (4 items).

The ESQ-R is correlated with other executive functioning rating scales (Current Behavior Scale [CBS], r = .74; Adult Executive Functioning Inventory [ADEXI], r = .69), indicating adequate convergent validity, moderate correlations with psychological symptom scales (DASS-21 Depression, r = .48; DASS-21 Anxiety, r = .38; DASS-21 Stress, r = .44; GAD-7, r = .45; PSS-10, r = .55), indicating adequate discriminant validity, and a moderate negative correlation with academic engagement (r = -.40), indicating that greater executive functioning skills deficits are associated with lower levels of academic engagement.

A sample of 327 working adults in Malaysia (153 males and 171 females [1 unknown] aged 23 to 80 years, Mean = 40.34 years, SD = 10.39 years) had the following total and factor scores on a modified version of the ESQ-R (Nasir et al., 2021).

• Total: Mean = 20.54, SD = 10.27
• Plan Management: Mean = 7.59, SD = 5.08
• Time Management: Mean = 3.03, SD = 2.24
• Organization: Mean = 2.57, SD = 1.96
• Emotional Regulation: Mean = 3.02, SD = 1.88
• Behavioral Regulation: Mean = 4.32, SD = 2.08

The above means and SDs are used to convert the respondent’s scores to percentiles, providing useful information about their strengths and weaknesses in executive functioning skills relative to working adults.

Supplementary Material

Percentiles for ESQ-R total and factor scores are presented below. Each score has a corresponding percentile which indicates the percentage of people who scored the same as or lower than the given score. For example, a total score of 27 corresponds to the 74th percentile, indicating that 74% of the normative sample have a total score of 27 or lower. The total scores and corresponding percentiles are categorised as follows: Low Difficulties (Green), Below Average Difficulties (Light Green), Average Difficulties (Blue), Above Average Difficulties (Orange), and High Difficulties (Red). The subscale scores and corresponding percentiles are categorised as follows: No or Low Difficulty (White), Moderate Difficulty (Orange), and High Difficulty (Red).

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