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Inhibitory Control in Early Childhood Aggression Subtypes: Mediation by Irritability

Gretchen R Perhamus1, Jamie M Ostrov2

  • 1Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA. grperham@buffalo.edu.

Child Psychiatry and Human Development
|September 22, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Inhibitory control (IC) difficulties predict increased irritability, which fuels reactive aggression in young children. Gender influences how irritability links inhibitory control to aggression severity.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Aggression Research

Background:

  • Inhibitory control (IC) is crucial for regulating behavior in early childhood.
  • Aggression manifests in various forms, including reactive and proactive subtypes.
  • Understanding the developmental pathways linking IC, irritability, and aggression is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine irritability as a mediator between inhibitory control (IC) and aggression subtypes (reactive vs. proactive).
  • To investigate these associations over one year in early childhood.
  • To explore potential gender moderation in these developmental relationships.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study with 300 children (mean age 44.7 months).
  • Assessed inhibitory control (IC), irritability, and aggression (severity and directionality) over one year.
  • Statistical mediation and moderation analyses were employed.

Main Results:

  • Lower IC predicted increased irritability, which in turn predicted increased reactive aggression (physical and relational).
  • Irritability mediated the IC-aggression link for physical severity (girls only) and relational severity (both genders).
  • The indirect effect was significant for physical aggression directionality but not relational.

Conclusions:

  • Irritability plays a mediating role in the association between low inhibitory control and reactive aggression in early childhood.
  • Developmental links between IC, irritability, and reactive aggression are observable early.
  • Directionality scores effectively differentiate between aggression subtypes in research.

Keywords:
AggressionEarly childhoodInhibitory controlIrritability

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