title: A study of executive functions in delinquents with developmental disabilities within a Japanese reformatory.
abstract: Many attempts have been made to address the relation between antisocial behavior and executive  function deficits. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate executive functions in juvenile delinquents  with developmental disabilities by using the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS),  and then cross referencing this to their performance on Wechsler IQ Test, Das Naglieri Cognitive  Assessment System (DN-CAS), and Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT). The data was collected  from 164 participants with Mental Retardation (MR), Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), and  Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and a factor analysis was applied to results of the BADS.  Two factors were extracted from the results; one factor was interpreted as low-degree of freedom executive  ability (LDF-EA) and the other factor as high-degree of freedom executive ability (HDF-EA). There was no  difference in IQ-matched groups with MR, ADHD and PDD, or in either factor in age- and IQ-matched groups  with ADHD and PDD. While both factors had correlations with IQ and AVLT, where subjects were confined to  MR, the HDF-EA had no correlation. Neither factor showed correlation with the DN-CAS performance.  Moreover, scores of the LDF-EA increased associated with increases in IQ levels, however, scores of  the HDF-EA appeared broadly unrelated to IQ points. The results suggested that the HDF-EA could be  interpreted as a different level of executive functions compared to the LDF-EA. It is difficult to  evaluate executive abilities by using only IQ testing, and the BADS would be useful to assess the level  of high-degree of freedom executive functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan. miyaguti@nifty.com
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyaguchi
authors.forename: Sadaaki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shirataki
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology; D007360:Intelligence; D007564:Japan; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult