The influence of neuropsychological deficits in early childhood on low self-control and misconduct through early adolescence

•Executive dysfunction in kindergarten predicted low self-control through 8th grade.•Executive dysfunction in kindergarten predicted misconduct during 8th grade.•Prior research limited to cross-sectional or short-term examinations.•Significant effects regardless of gender, race, parenting and neighborhood factors.•Parenting measures generally had inconsistent effects on low self-control.

PurposeGottfredson and Hirschi (1990) contend that low self-control is the result of parental management techniques. However, an emerging line of research has revealed that neuropsychological deficits influence the development of low self-control (Beaver et al., 2007 and Cauffman et al., 2005). Nevertheless, these studies have largely tested the effects of neuropsychological deficits on low self-control cross-sectionally or in the short term. This study addresses an important void in the literature by examining the influence of neuropsychological deficits in early childhood on levels of self-control and misconduct through early adolescence.MethodsData come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten (ECLS-K), the largest nationally representative sample of U.S. children.ResultsWe found that deficits in neuropsychological functioning during kindergarten were consistently predictive of lower levels of self-control during the third, fifth, and eighth grade as well as higher levels of conduct problems during the eighth grade. These effects remained significant after accounting for demographic variables, features of the neighborhood, and a number of parenting variables.ConclusionsNeuropsychological deficits during early childhood play an important role in the development of low self-control through early adolescence and misconduct during early adolescence.