Head Injuries and Changes in Delinquency from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Objectives: The current study examines whether head injuries suffered earlier in the life course are associated with subsequent changes in self-control and delinquency. Methods: Latent growth curve models and path analysis are used to analyze the developmental trajectories of self-control and delinquency as well as the potential associations between head injury, self-control, and delinquency among a sample of youth offenders from the pathways to desistance study. Results: The results revealed significant associations between head injuries and short-term changes in self-control and subsequent increases in aggressive delinquency. Indirect pathway models revealed that lower levels of self-control significantly mediated the association between head injuries and starting levels in aggressive delinquency. The association between head injuries and changes in aggressive delinquency was also significantly mediated by self-control, but the association was negative, indicating that youth who previously suffered head injuries desisted from aggressive delinquency at a slightly faster rate than their noninjured peers. Additional analyses revealed that, despite accelerated rates of decline, injured youth engaged in significantly higher levels of aggressive delinquency throughout the entire observation period. Conclusion: Head injuries represent one environmental factor that may influence delinquent behaviors through their influence on biological and developmental processes.

Traumatic brain injury and adverse psychological effects: Examining a potential pathway to aggressive offending

“…As highlighted in a recent review of the literature, TBI during adolescence has substantive effects on neurological systems and could manifest as poor self‐regulation and negative psychological outcomes (Moore et al, 2014; Williams, Cordan, Mewse, Tonks, & Burgess, 2010; Williams et al, 2018). Consistent with the prior research, we postulate that psychological mechanisms mediate the association between TBI during adolescence and aggressive offending (Moore et al, 2014; Perron & Howard, 2008; Schoenhuber & Gentilini, 1988; Scholten et al, 2016; Schwartz et al, 2017). A visual representation of our theoretical proposition is presented in Figure 1.…”

“…The neurological and behavioral effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been well documented in the extant literature (Ghajar, 2000). For instance, various psychosocial problems, such as aggressive behavior (Grafman et al, 1996), impulsivity (Schwartz, Connolly, & Brauer, 2017), and aggression (Bryant & Harvey, 1999; Grafman et al, 1996) have been associated with exposure to TBI. Consequently, scholars have proposed a potential indirect pathway between TBI and antisocial behavior (Williams et al, 2018).…”

Brain activity, low self-control, and delinquency: An fMRI study of at-risk adolescents

“…Alterations in neural structure and functioning are known to result from such things as food insecurity (Bourre, 2006), head injury (Levin & Hanten, 2005), and exposure to maltreatment (Twardosz & Lutzker, 2010) during childhood. Such findings are relevant to our current focus in light of additional research linking food insecurity, head injury, and maltreatment to deficits in self-control and involvement in antisocial behavior (e.g., Farrer & Hedges, 2011; Jackson & Vaughn, 2017; Jackson, Vaughn, & Salas-Wright, 2017; Kimbro & Denney, 2015; Kort-Butler, Tyler, & Melander, 2011; Schwartz, Connolly, & Brauer, 2017; Shields, Cicchetti, & Ryan, 1994; Vaughn, Salas-Wright, Naeger, Huang, & Piquero, 2016). Given the above strands of research, programming efforts focused on preventing abnormal brain development should be promoted.…”

“…Future research might also examine how the influence of certain genetic predispositions on low self-control is mediated by neurobiological functioning, in light of work from other disciplines finding that genetic predispositions influence antisocial behavior via neurobiological mediation (e.g., Glaser, Zubieta, Hsu, Villafuerte, Mickey, Trucco, et al, 2014; Villafuerte, Heitzeg, Foley, Yau, Majczenko, Zubieta, et al, 2012). Lastly, given emerging links between health and lifestyle-related variables and low self-control (e.g., lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and head injury [Barnes & Meldrum, 2015; Schwartz et al, 2017; Vaughn et al, 2016]), which likely operate by altering brain structure and functioning, future work would benefit from a more explicit integration of the neurobiological and health-related literatures into criminological discourse on the causes of low self-control and delinquent behavior.…”

The impact of brain injury on within-individual changes in moral disengagement: implications for criminal and antisocial behavior

“…Recently, Schwartz (2019) identified some of these influences as acquired neuropsychological deficits or those environmental influences that compromise expected neurocognitive and psychosocial development, resulting in subsequent behavioral and cognitive problems. While a host of environmental influences may fit this description, brain injury has been identified as an important candidate (Dégeilh et al 2018;Farrer and Hedges 2011;Fazel et al 2011;Frost et al 2013;Schwartz 2019;Schwartz et al 2017;Schwartz et al 2018;Schwartz et al 2019). Despite findings linking brain injury to subsequent increases in problem behaviors, few studies have investigated intervening factors of such associations (Fishbein et al 2016;Schwartz et al 2017).…”