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442 EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONStreatment programs that strengthen the social and behavioral trajectories of children(Dodge, 2001).There are four primary goals for this chapter. The first is to briefly consideraspects of the developing adolescent for understanding the development of competence,risk, and psychopathology. Second, we review research on the potentialinfluence of neurocognitive abilities and changes in neurobiological systems onsocial and emotional competence. Here we utilize the term neurocognitive to denoteexecutive functions including inhibitory control, set shifting, planning, andmaintaining information in working memory, as well as the role of language inguiding behavior. Third, we review research indicating the potential mediatingrole of changes in neurocognitive function in the prevention of problem behaviorsin childhood. Finally, we discuss the implications and future directions of thisresearch for the linkage of prevention science and developmental neuroscienceduring adolescence.A central question in modern psychology is the reciprocal relationship betweenemotion, arousal and motivation, and cognition (Bandura, 1986; Blair, Granger,& Razza, 2005; Cicchetti & Schneider-Rosen, 1984; Gray et al., 2005; Luria,1973). The developmental processes involved and the contextual forces that shapethe integration of cognition and emotion have become one of the most excitingaspects of research in development from infancy through adolescence (Steinberget al., in press). Central to the nascent integrative understanding of these changesis the emergence and integration of developmental neuroscience. This researchhas altered our understanding of the flexibility and malleability of the brain inrelation to environmental stimulation and deprivation (Bush, Luu, & Posner; 2000;Gunnar & Vazquez, 2001; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002).An exciting result of these new integrations across brain, behavior, and contextare conceptual models of development that begin to fully embrace the complexityof person-environment interactions at different developmental stages (Blair, 2002;Greenberg & Kusche, 1993; Steinberg et al., 2006). In addition, a number of morespecific models that integrate neurocognitive and biological factors have been conceptualizedfor the development of aggression and delinquency in adolescence(Moffitt, 1993) and substance abuse (Fishbein, Hyde, Coe, & Paschal, 2004).The complexity of understanding necessary to fully characterize adolescencesurely includes a model that includes both pubertal/hormonal changes, developmentsand integrations at the neurological level (especially in the prefrontal area),changes in roles and identity, along with the increasing striving for autonomy, aswell as the decreased monitoring by adults that was present in childhood. Thechallenges of adolescence present the combination of increasing autonomy andrisk taking and, a central struggle of this period is the management of impulsivityin the context of high emotionality. As a result, similarly to other periods in childhood,youth’s social and cognitive competencies in hypothetical situations or in“cool” situations of low emotional arousal are not strong predictors of their be-