A Comparison of Behavioral Inhibition between Juvenile Delinquents, with or without History of Substance Abuse, and Normal Adolescents

Inhibition as an important component of executive functionsplays an important role in the incidence of juvenile delinquency.The aim of thisresearch is to investigate the role ofbehavioral inhibition in the Juvenile delinquents with or without history of substance abuse.42 juvenile delinquents and 20 normal adolescents, as the control group, were selected through cluster random sampling method. Juvenile delinquents were divided into two groups: with or without history of substance abuse and these two groups were matched for age and sex andThen the two groups were assessed through tests including go no go and stop signs.Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance test, univariate analysis of variance test and Tukey test. Analysis of data showedthat the juvenile delinquents, in comparison with the normal adolescents,performed poorly on behavioral inhibition,but there was no significant difference between groups with or without history of substance abuse (p>0.05).Therefore, Insufficiency of behavioral inhibition can be one of the underlying causes of tendencies to delinquency. The findings of thepresent studyemphasize the necessity ofthe focused interventions to improve the executive function in juvenile offenders