Hiram E. Fitzgerald

Theory and research in behavioral pediatrics

Eight contributions address: material cocaine use and neonatal outcome; nonorganic failure to thrive; understanding and controlling violence; the role of school in prosocial development; lateralization of function; lateralized behavior organization during infancy; parent-infant interaction; and manu

Race, Gender, and Information Technology Use: The New Digital Divide

This research examined race and gender differences in the intensity and nature of IT use and whether IT use predicted academic performance. A sample of 515 children (172 African Americans and 343 Caucasian Americans), average age 12 years old, completed surveys as part of their participation in the Children and Technology Project. Findings indicated race and gender differences in the intensity of IT use; African American males were the least intense users of computers and the Internet, and African American females were the most intense users of the Internet. Males, regardless of race, were the most intense videogame players, and females, regardless of race, were the most intense cell phone users. IT use predicted childrens academic performance. Length of time using computers and the Internet was a positive predictor of academic performance, whereas amount of time spent playing videogames was a negative predictor. Implications of the findings for bringing IT to African American males and bringing African American males to IT are discussed.

Does Home Internet Use Influence the Academic Performance of Low-Income Children?

HomeNetToo is a longitudinal field study designed to examine the antecedents and consequences of home Internet use in low-income families (http://www.HomeNetToo.org). The study was done between December 2000 and June 2002. Among the consequences considered was children’s academic performance. Participants were 140 children, mostly African American (83%), mostly boys (58%), and most living in single-parent households (75%) in which the median annual income was

Neuropsychological Executive Functioning in Children at Elevated Risk for Alcoholism: Findings in Early Adolescence

15,000 (U.S. dollars) or less. Average age was 13.8 years. Ages ranged between 10 and 18 years, Internet use was continuously recorded, and multiple measures of academic performance were obtained during the 16-month trial. Findings indicated that children who used the Internet more had higher scores on standardized tests of reading achievement and higher grade point averages 6 months, 1 year, and 16 months later than did children who used it less. Older children used the Internet more than did younger children, but age had no effect on the nature or the academic performance benefits of Internet use. Implications for the digital “use” divide are discussed.

Information technology use and creativity: Findings from the Children and Technology Project

One component of individual risk for alcoholism may involve cognitive vulnerabilities prodromal to alcoholism onset. This prospective study of 198 boys followed between 3 and 14 years of age evaluated neurocognitive functioning across three groups who varied in familial risk for future alcoholism. Measures of intelligence, reward-response, and a battery of neuropsychological executive and cognitive inhibitory measures were used. Executive functioning weaknesses were greater in families with alcoholism but no antisocial comorbidity. IQ and reward-response weaknesses were associated with familial antisocial alcoholism. Executive function effects were clearest for response inhibition, response speed, and symbol-digit modalities. Results suggest that executive deficits are not part of the highest risk, antisocial pathway to alcoholism but that some executive function weaknesses may contribute to a secondary risk pathway.

Modeling the Dynamics of Paternal Influences on Children Over the Life Course

This research examined relationships between childrens information technology (IT) use and their creativity. Four types of information technology were considered: computer use, Internet use, videogame playing and cell phone use. A multidimensional measure of creativity was developed based on Torrances (1987, 1995) test of creative thinking. Participants were 491 12-year olds; 53% were female, 34% were African American and 66% were Caucasian American. Results indicated that videogame playing predicted of all measures of creativity. Regardless of gender or race, greater videogame playing was associated with greater creativity. Type of videogame (e.g., violent, interpersonal) was unrelated to videogame effects on creativity. Gender but not race differences were obtained in the amount and type of videogame playing, but not in creativity. Implications of the findings for future research to test the causal relationship between videogame playing and creativity and to identify mediator and moderator variables are discussed.

Really Underage Drinkers: Alcohol Use Among Elementary Students

Modeling the Dynamics of Paternal Influences on Children over the Life Course Is a heuristic model, which identifies sets of variables that predict father involvement, variables that interact to predict involvement, and variables that influence father characteristics and thereby influence involvement. It also suggests moderators and mediators of pathways from predictors to father involvement and from father involvement to child outcomes. It is a dynamic model, assuming change over the life course, while retaining paternal influences from one developmental period to another. The model is rooted in the extant literature, although it is not circumscribed by that literature. As a heuristic model, it offers a framework from which measurement models can be derived to address research questions of interest.

Parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior: prospective relationships to externalizing behavior problems in their young sons.

Despite the current societal concern with underage drinking, little attention has been paid to alcohol use within the preadolescent population. This article presents the proceedings of a symposium held at the 2003 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that was organized and chaired by John E. Donovan. The intent of the symposium was to kick start research on alcohol use among elementary school children by reviewing what is known regarding drinking in childhood. Presentations included (1) The Epidemiology of Childrens Alcohol Use, by John E. Donovan; (2) The Validity of Childrens Self-Reports of Alcohol Use, by Sharon L. Leech; (3) Predicting Onset of Drinking From Behavior at Three Years of Age: Influence of Early Child Expectancies and Parental Alcohol Involvement Upon Early First Use, by Robert A. Zucker; and (4) Parent, Peer, and Child Risk Factors for Alcohol Use in Two Cohorts of Elementary School Children, by Carol J. Loveland-Cherry. Presentations indicated the need for better nationwide surveillance of childrens experience with alcohol; suggested that childrens reports of their use of alcohol tend to be reliable and valid; supported childrens alcohol use schemas and parental drinking and alcoholism at child age three as independent predictors of early onset drinking; and showed that onset of drinking before fourth or fifth grade, peer pressure, and parental norms and monitoring predict elementary student alcohol use and misuse.

Behavioral Outcomes among Children of Alcoholics During the Early and Middle Childhood Years: Familial Subtype Variations

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent–child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing families involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 years between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3–5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and the sons subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of maternal and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father–son conflict mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implications are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.

Childhood and adolescent resiliency, regulation, and executive functioning in relation to adolescent problems and competence in a high-risk sample

This study examined early behavioral outcomes among young children of alcoholics (COAs) as a function of differences in subtype of paternal alcoholism. Participants were 212 children (106 girls and 106 boys, ages 3 through 8) and both of their biological parents. Families were characterized as antisocial alcoholics, nonantisocial alcoholics, and nonalcoholic controls. There were significant familial subtype group differences on parent report measures of childrens total behavior problems, externalizing behavior, and internalizing behavior, and on measures of childrens intellectual functioning and academic achievement. In all instances, COAs had poorer functioning than controls. In the behavior problem domain, but not for the domain of intellectual functioning, children from antisocial alcoholic families had greater problems than children from nonantisocial alcoholic families. In addition to the subtype effects, boys had higher levels of behavior problems than girls in all three areas, and older children had more internalizing problems than younger children. Maternal functioning pertaining to lifetime alcohol problem involvement and antisocial behavior also contributed to child subtype differences in internalizing behavior. Results indicate that, even at very early ages, male and female COAs are heterogeneous populations that are distinguishable by way of familial subtype membership, as well as distinguishable from their non-COA peers. Thus, findings underscore the need to consider the heterogeneity of alcoholism when looking at its effects on child development.