Association between executive functions and behavior problems: an integrative literature review
Keywords:
Funções executivas, Problemas comportamentais, Problemas emocionais, Problemas de comportamento, AutorregulaçãoAbstract
Emotional / behavioral problems can be classified as internalizing, which comprise disorders with anxious, depressive and somatic symptoms; and externalizing, which refer to disorders with impulsive, disruptive and substance use symptoms. As for executive functions, they are essential skills for success, whether in school or in life, that promote and organize behaviors aimed at goals. This literature review proposed to analyze the publications that correlate these two themes, in order to carefully synthesize the evidence available in the last 5 years and indicate possible directions for future investigations. The information was obtained in September 2020 from the Pubmed databases, with the following descriptors: “executive functions and behavior problems”, “executive functions and behavior problem”, “executive function and behavior problems” and “executive function and behavior problem” , identifying 98 papers in English since 2015. Of these, 15 repeated articles were excluded. From this, a selection was made by reading the titles, excluding works whose participants had any previous diagnosis or condition associated with executive dysfunctions or emotional / behavioral problems, leaving 20 articles related specifically to the theme of this research. Of the 20, 10 were excluded after reading the summary, as they also deal with children with associated conditions, such as, for example, epilepsy or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. There were 10 articles left that were selected and analyzed. It was concluded that there is evidence regarding the relationship between these variables and in the literature, indicating that EFs play an important role in emotional regulation, which reinforces the importance of broad assessments being carried out early, since the identification of impairments in functions and the presence of emotional / behavioral problems allows efforts in terms of prevention, in addition to the development of intervention strategies.
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