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Neurocognitive development and externalizing problems: the role of inhibitory control deficits from 4 to 6 years
Author(s) -
Utendale William T.,
Hubert Michele,
SaintPierre Arnaud B.,
Hastings Paul D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.20403
Subject(s) - inhibitory control , neurocognitive , psychology , developmental psychology , early childhood , executive functions , association (psychology) , audiology , cognition , medicine , neuroscience , psychotherapist
Executive processes have been posited as important regulators of externalizing problems (EP), but there has been little research on the relation between executive dysfunction and EP in early childhood. During the preschool period, maturation of the prefrontostriatal circuitry parallels increases in inhibitory control (IC). Poor IC development could result in elevated levels of aggressive, disruptive, and impulsive behavior. In this investigation, the development of the relation between IC and EP was examined in preschool and early elementary school children using the Day/Night and Tapping tasks. Children with more EP made more incorrect responses on both IC tasks, consistently across age and sex. The associations between EP and response latencies differed across children, however, with longer latencies on the Tapping task being most characteristic for boys with high levels of EP. This association was not apparent for girls. Two prominent aspects of early EP, aggressive and inattentive behavior, showed only weak unique associations with IC performance. These findings imply that diminished IC accompanies elevated EP as early as the preschool years, and that this decrement persists into the elementary school‐age years for both girls and boys, and that accuracy and response latency may confer different information about the development of IC. Aggr. Behav. 37:476–488, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.