A - 140 Relationships between Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury and Impulsivity, Aggression, and Incarceration in Adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to impaired self-regulatory behaviors such as impulsivity, aggression, and poor decision making. It was hypothesized that childhood TBI would relate to higher impulsivity, aggression, and incarceration in adulthood.

METHOD: The current study analyzes an archival dataset of 95 incarcerated men from a correctional facility. Composite scores were created for impulsivity self-report, impulsivity neurobehavioral, and aggression. The measures used to assess each of these were Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale, Dysexecutive Questionnaire, Triarchic Psychopathic Measure Disinhibition scale and Meanness scale, Porteous Maze Task, Color-Word Interference Test, Aggression Questionnaire, and Institutional records. Hypothesis testing was based on a series of analyses of covariance. Age was entered as the covariate for all analyses.

RESULTS: Non-significant effects were observed between TBI with LOC before the age of 15 and impulsivity, F(1, 82) = 0.59, p = 0.45, ηp2 = 0.007;, F(1, 84) = 0.13, p = 0.72, ηp2 = 0.002, aggression, F(1, 83) = 0.27, p = 0.60, ηp2 = 0.003, and adult incarceration, F(1, 78) = 0.76, p = 0.39, ηp2 = 0.01. The covariate of age was found to be statistically significant with a medium effect in the incarceration model, F(1, 78) = 11.44, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.13.

CONCLUSION: Prior literature provides support for the hypotheses even though the results of this study didn't. With greater research on TBI in childhood, we can discover and implement strategies to help children after they have had a TBI to boost development and prevent potential negative outcomes.