Confirmatory factor analysis of the behavioral dyscontrol scale in a mixed clinical sample

The Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS) is a brief measure of executive functioning originally designed for use primarily with older adults. Previous research suggests that factors derived from exploratory factor analysis of the BDS have clinical utility and are theoretically meaningful; however, the factor structure has not been previously submitted to confirmatory analysis, and there are several potential methodological problems with the previous exploratory factor analysis. In this study, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of the BDS. Findings were largely consistent with the original exploratory analysis (Grigsby, Kaye, & Robbins, 1992) in suggesting a three-factor model, although the three-factor model was a better fit if factors were allowed to correlate with one another. The findings of this study lend support to the current practice of using factor scores in clinical and research applications.