Executive functions in children: associations with aggressive behavior and appraisal processing

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Forensic Psychology

Background:

• Aggressive behavior in boys is a significant concern with complex underlying mechanisms.
• Executive functioning (EF) and appraisal processes are implicated in aggression, but their specific links to subtypes remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between executive functioning deficits and appraisal distortions with proactive and reactive aggression subtypes in boys.
• To examine the moderating role of hostile attributional biases and hostile encoding in these associations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multi-informant reports and performance measures for assessment.
• Included a sample of 83 boys.
• Analyzed executive functions (response inhibition, planning) and appraisal biases (hostile attribution, hostile encoding).

Main Results:

• Deficits in response inhibition and planning were primarily associated with reactive aggression.
• Hostile attributional biases moderated the link between planning ability and aggression subtypes.
• Hostile encoding moderated the relationship between behavioral inhibition and reactive aggression.
• Response inhibition showed a mediational role between planning ability and reactive aggression.

Conclusions:

• Executive functioning deficits, especially planning, are crucial in understanding reactive aggression, particularly when hostile attributional biases are high.
• Appraisal biases significantly shape the expression of aggression in relation to executive functioning.
• Targeting executive functions and cognitive biases may be key for interventions aimed at reducing aggression in boys.