Response perseveration in adolescent boys with stable and unstable histories of physical aggression: the role of underlying processes.
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.
Séguin
Jean R
JR
Research Unit on Childhood Maladjustment, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada. Jean.Seguin@UMontreal.CA
Arseneault
Louise
L
Boulerice
Bernard
B
Harden
Philip W
PW
Tremblay
Richard E
RE
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