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The Role of Preventive Interventions 443havior in risky contexts in which emotions run high (potential to shoplift whenwith friends at the mall, to drink with peers at an unsupervised party, etc.).Given the central importance of the development of self-reflection and mindfulness(metacognition) in middle childhood and adolescence in regulating strongemotions, the field of neuropsychology holds promise in the construction of comprehensive,developmental models of problem behavior (Greenberg, Kusche, &Riggs, 2004). As such, models that incorporate a focus on neural maturation insocial contexts can help researchers better design and implement programs aimedat preventing the development of adolescent problem behavior.Development of Neural Systems and Pathways Relatedto Social, Cognitive, and Emotional CompetenceNeural development is a product of the complex interaction between the genotype(the full complement of genes inherited by parents) and environmental conditionssurrounding individuals (Greenough, Black, & Christopher, 1987). Geneticmechanisms combine with environmental influences to impact each aspect ofneural development from neurogenesis, migration, synapse formation and density,pruning, myelination, to degeneration (see Grossman, Churchill, McKinney,Kodish, Otte, & Greenough, 2003). However, there is a great deal of heterogeneityin the time course of development in different areas of the brain with the longestperiod of development occurring in the frontal area (Giedd et al., 1999; Giedd,Castellanos, Casey, & Kozuch, 1994). During childhood and into adolescence,the areas of the brain responsible for behavioral control and self-regulation arerapidly proceeding through genetically influenced phases of structural organization.However, although genes play an important role in neural development, neuralorganization is malleable and can be shaped by both shared and unique experiencein determining ultimate neural structure and functioning. Findings at themolecular level indicate the role of gene-environment interactions in adolescentdevelopment (Caspi, Moffitt, Cannon, McClay, Murray, et al., 2005).The Limbic System and Frontal CortexThe limbic system, which is situated in the middle of the brain, is often referredto as the brain’s “emotion center.” It controls the automatic processing of multipleaspects of emotion and behavior, such as the recognition of emotional expressionin faces, action tendencies, and the storage of emotional memories (Aggleton,1992). Although the limbic system is functionally immature at birth, children whoreceive an appropriate level of environmental stimuli (see Greenough, et al., 1987)achieve relative mastery in these “limbic” tasks by toddlerhood. However, childrenat this age are especially prone to impulsive, emotional, and behavioral reactionsdue, in part, to an underdeveloped frontal cortex.