The Preventive Intervention Trajectory (Preventief Interventie Team; PIT) is a project which intervenes preventively in children who have a risk of future criminal behavior. Interventions focus on...Show moreThe Preventive Intervention Trajectory (Preventief Interventie Team; PIT) is a project which intervenes preventively in children who have a risk of future criminal behavior. Interventions focus on reducing externalizing problem behavior in these children. It is important to know which factors have an influence on the effectivity of the PIT. Current research focused on the association between self-worth and externalizing problems. Previous research is inconsistent, which suggests there is a possibility that the association between self-worth and externalizing problems is a quadratic association. Current research examined the possibility that children with average self-worth would have less externalizing problems at timepoint one than children with high and low self-worth. Children with low, average and high self-worth were compared on (reduction of) externalizing problems before treatment, on the short term (six months), and on the long term (twelve months). Results showed that there is was no significant linear association between self-worth and externalizing problems before treatment, which supports the suggestion that there might be a quadratic association. However, ANOVA-analysis revealed that there was also no significant quadratic or linear relation. Externalizing problems in children reduced significantly on the short and long term. However, no significant linear or quadratic relation between self-worth and the reduction in externalizing problems on the short and long term was found, indicating that there is no association between self-worth and (the reduction of) externalizing problems. Future research should include a larger sample to verify the current findings.Show less