There is mounting evidence that deficits in EC are empirically related to children’s externalizing symptoms, concurrently and sometimes across time (e.g., Kochanska & Knaack, 2003; Lengua, 2006; Lengua, West, & Sandler, 1998, Oldehinkel, Hartman, Ferdinand, Verhulst, & Ormel, 2007; Olson, Sameroff, Kerr, Lopez, & Wellman, 2005; Rydell, Berlin, & Bohlin, 2003; Spinrad et al., 2007). However, investigators seldom have examined whether different aspects of EC relate in the same manner, although Martel et al. (2007) found that deficits in inhibitory control were related to externalizing problems, whereas planning (generally viewed as an aspect of EC) was not. Moreover, measures of impulsivity/reactive undercontrol tend to relate positively to externalizing problems (Eisenberg et al., 2004; Krueger, Caspi, Moffitt, White, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1996; Lemery, Essex, & Smider, 2002; Martel et al., 2007).
