NCJ Number
195532
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: May-June 2002 Pages: 215-235
Date Published
2002
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the public health significance of impaired executive cognitive functioning and its implications for behavioral disorders.
Abstract
The paper reviews research that may explain the epidemiology of impaired executive cognitive functioning (ECF) and its relationship to aggression and violent behavior (AVB). It also discusses other conditions that correlate with, define, or contribute to ECF impairments that may also relate to AVB. The paper includes an introduction to interventions with potential to improve ECF and, in turn, AVB. These include violence prevention programs developed to improve cognitive and social skills among children and promising approaches for rehabilitating executive function deficits in individuals with traumatic brain injuries. It proposes an agenda research on the ECF-AVB relationship from a public health perspective, with attention to anticipated methodological and ethical challenges. The paper claims that research focusing on the relationship between ECF deficits and AVB will have important theoretical and practical implications for understanding and preventing various forms of psychopathology. Figure, table, references