Self-Regulatory Deficits as Predictors of Sexual, Aggressive, and Self-Harm Behaviors in a Psychiatric Sex Offender Population

New directions in the literature describing etiology and treatment of sexual offending have suggested that self-regulation and self-regulatory deficits are an important component in the development of these behaviors. Here, the authors discuss the proposed relationships among self-regulatory deficits, dysregulation, and maladaptive behavior, including problematic sexual behavior. Emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dysregulation were evaluated in a sample of 256 psychiatric inpatients with a history of illegal sexual behaviors in both community and residential care settings. Factor analysis assisted in identifying categories of dysregulation, including emotional and cognitive dysregulation from psychiatric variables and behavioral dysregulation from histories of criminality, sex offending, and suicidal behaviors. Regression procedures demonstrated predictive relationships among these variables. The results indicate that emotional and cognitive dysregulation are differentially predictive of different types of maladaptive behavior. A discussion of findings and relevance to the current literature is included.