Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Are Offence-Focused Correctional Rehabilitation Programs Affecting Inmates' Executive Cognitive Functions?, Erin H. Ross

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is a vast amount of data linking antisocial behaviours and deficits in executive cognitive functions (ECFs); however, there is a dearth of empirical research to address whether ECF abilities are being affected by correctional rehabilitation programming. Using a pre/post design, ECF performance of male inmates who completed a violence, family violence, or substance abuse rehabilitation program, was compared to ECFs of controls. Results indicated that across the six measures of ECF, including behavioural and self-report measures, only 2 of 10 variables showed a change across groups over time. Therefore, strong support for the notion that correctional programming is improving …