Citation

Silver IA, Nedelec JL. Aggressive Behav. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.21886

PMID

32124999

Abstract

Contemporary scholarship has demonstrated an association between traumatic brain injury (TBI) during adolescence and aggressive offending. Research, however, has yet to identify any mechanisms linking TBI to subsequent aggressive offending. Consequently, the current study hypothesized that adverse psychological effects is one such pathway. The current study used the Pathways to Desistance data set (n = 416) to examine the pathway of TBI to aggressive offending through adverse psychological effects. The findings of the structural equation model supported the hypothesized association. Specifically, increased exposure to TBI was indirectly associated with aggressive offending through adverse psychological effects. An additional supplemental analysis illustrated that a direct link between TBI and aggressive offending did not exist for the analytical sample. The findings suggested that the neurological disruptions commonly associated with TBI could result in direct increases in negative psychological outcomes and indirect increases in subsequent negative behavioral outcomes.

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

adverse psychological effects; aggressive offending; traumatic brain injury