title: Response perseveration in adolescent boys with stable and unstable histories of physical aggression: the role of underlying processes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It was unclear whether response perseveration and underlying processes, often related to antisocial externalizing disorders, were also related to histories of physical aggression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Boys of age 13 years were selected on the basis of childhood histories of physical aggression: stable, unstable, and non-aggressive. Performance on a Card Playing Task provided a perseveration index.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Physical aggression, regardless of history, predicted perseveration in adolescence. However, qualitative differences revealed that Neuroticism increased the risk for perseveration only in the unstable aggressive group relative to the other groups. Perseveration in the stable aggressive group maybe related to a more fundamental information-processing deficit.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The identification of these processes has implications for developmental theories of physical aggression; they may help discriminate those children who show early physical aggression and who will remain aggressive from those who will only show occasional physical aggression during later childhood.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit on Childhood Maladjustment, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada. Jean.Seguin@UMontreal.CA
authors.forename: Jean R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Séguin
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arseneault
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boulerice
authors.forename: Philip W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Harden
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Tremblay
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D006948:Hyperkinesis / Q000523:psychology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010551:Personality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011792:Quebec / Q000453:epidemiology; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior