Margaret Bendersky

Children’s Intellectual and Emotional–Behavioral Adjustment at 4 Years as a Function of Cocaine Exposure, Maternal Characteristics, and Environmental Risk

The authors examined 223 children at age 4 years for the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, exposure to other substances, maternal and environmental risk factors, and neonatal medical problems on IQ, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems. Regression analyses showed that maternal verbal IQ and low environmental risk predicted child IQ. Cocaine exposure negatively predicted childrens overall IQ and verbal reasoning scores, but only for boys. Cocaine exposure also predicted poorer short-term memory. Maternal harsh discipline, maternal depressive symptoms, and increased environmental risk predicted externalizing problems. In contrast, only maternal depressive symptoms predicted internalizing problems. These findings indicate that early exposure to substances is largely unrelated to subsequent IQ or adjustment, particularly for girls.

Characteristics of Pregnant Substance Abusers in Two Cities in the Northeast

This study examined the drug use patterns of pregnant women in two inner city sites, selected to overrepresent cocaine users. Women who used cocaine were much more likely to have used some combination of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana in addition to cocaine during pregnancy. There was little difference in the patterns of drug use in the two study sites, Trenton, New Jersey, and northwestern Philadelphia. A number of demographic and lifestyle variables of cocaine users, soft drug users (cigarettes, alcohol, and/or marijuana), and abstainers were compared. The cocaine-using group was significantly older and had more children, had less stable and more isolated living situations, was less likely to be employed and more likely to be receiving public assistance during pregnancy, and was more likely to have a higher drug- and alcohol-using social environment and family history than soft drug users or abstainers. Of significance was that many of the high-risk lifestyle factors exhibited by cocaine users were also seen, albeit to a lesser extent, among the soft drug users. These findings have implications for the timing of intervention strategies that would be most effective.

Cognitive functioning in 8- to 18-month-old drug-exposed infants.

This study examined the cognitive functioning in 236 infants at 8 and 18 months of age. Thirty-seven infants were heavily exposed to cocaine in-utero, 30 were lightly exposed, and 169 were not exposed to cocaine. Cognitive functioning was evaluated with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (2nd ed.; N. Bayley, 1993) at both ages. Infant information processing was also assessed with an infant-controlled habituation procedure. Results indicated that (a) infants of cocaine-abusing women had higher neonatal medical and environmental risk scores; (b) at 8 months, exposure groups did not differ in Psychomotor Development Index, Mental Development Index (MDI) scores, or recovery to a novel stimulus; and (c) infants heavily exposed to cocaine or high environmental risk had a decrease in MDI scores from 8 to 18 months. These results were obtained when neonatal medical and environmental risk, as well as polydrug exposure, were controlled.

Antecedents of emotion knowledge: Predictors of individual differences in young children

Individual differences in emotion knowledge were examined among 188 4‐year‐old, predominantly African American children. Cognitive ability and negative emotionality, maternal characteristics (parenting, verbal intelligence, and depressive symptoms), environmental risk, and child sex were examined as predictors of emotion knowledge. Regression analyses indicated that cognitively skilled children who resided in relatively low risk environments with verbally intelligent mothers possessed greater emotion knowledge. Proximal (4‐year) child cognitive ability was a stronger predictor than distal (2‐year) cognitive ability. Positive parenting at 4 years was correlated with child emotion knowledge, but this relation disappeared when parenting was examined in the context of other predictors. These findings highlight the potential role of child cognitive ability, along with environmental risk and maternal verbal intelligence, in childrens emotion knowledge and demonstrate the importance of examining a variety of predictors for their unique contribution to emotion knowledge.

Children's cognitive ability from 4 to 9 years old as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure, environmental risk, and maternal verbal intelligence.

This study examined the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, environmental risk, and maternal verbal intelligence on childrens cognitive ability. Gender and age were examined as moderators of potential cocaine exposure effects. The Stanford-Binet IV intelligence test was administered to 231 children (91 cocaine exposed, 140 unexposed) at ages 4, 6, and 9 years. Neonatal medical risk and other prenatal exposures (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana) were also examined for their unique effects on child IQ. Mixed models analysis indicated that prenatal cocaine exposure interacted with gender, as cocaine-exposed boys had lower composite IQ scores. Age at assessment did not moderate this relation, indicating that cocaine-exposed boys had lower IQs across this age period. A stimulating home environment and high maternal verbal IQ also predicted higher composite IQ scores. Cocaine-exposed boys had lower scores on the Abstract/Visual Reasoning subscale, with trends for lower scores on the Short-Term Memory and Verbal Reasoning subscales, as exposure effects were observed across domains. The findings indicate that cocaine exposure continues to place children at risk for mild cognitive deficits into preadolescence. Possible mechanisms for the Exposure x Gender interaction are discussed.

Reactivity and regulation in children prenatally exposed to cocaine.

Children prenatally exposed to cocaine may be at elevated risk for adjustment problems in early development because of greater reactivity and reduced regulation during challenging tasks. Few studies have examined whether cocaine-exposed children show such difficulties during the preschool years, a period marked by increased social and cognitive demands and by rapid changes in reactivity and regulation. The authors addressed this question by examining frustration reactivity and regulation of behavior during a problem-solving task in cocaine-exposed and -unexposed preschoolers. Participants were 174 4.5-year-olds (M age = 4.55 years, SD = 0.09). Frustration reactivity was measured as latency to show frustration and number of disruptive behaviors, whereas regulation was measured as latency to approach and attempt the problem-solving task and number of problem-solving behaviors. Results indicated that cocaine-exposed children took longer to attempt the problem-solving task but that cocaine-exposed boys showed the most difficulties: They were quicker to express frustration and were more disruptive. Effect sizes were relatively small, suggesting both resilience and vulnerabilities.

Preadolescent health risk behavior as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure and gender.

Objective: To examine the effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on health risk behaviors during preadolescence. Methods: The present study examined prenatal cocaine exposure, gender, and environmental risk as predictors of self-reported substance use, aggression, and a disregard for safety precautions on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in a sample of 10.5 year olds (n = 154, including 60 who were prenatally exposed to cocaine). Results: Gender tended to moderate the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure because exposure effects were found for boys but not girls. Boys who were prenatally exposed to cocaine reported engaging in more high-risk behavior. In examining individual outcomes, cocaine exposed boys had the highest scores for aggression, substance use, and a disregard for safety precautions, although these differences were significant only for the composite health risk behavior measure. Conclusions: The findings extend earlier work showing that prenatal cocaine exposure places boys at risk for problems of inhibitory control, emotional regulation, and antisocial behavior. Research is needed to examine whether the effects of prenatal cocaine on health risk behaviors persist into adolescence, when such behaviors tend to increase.

Inhibitory motor control at five years as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure.

ABSTRACT. This study examined childrens (n = 140, age 5 years) ability to inhibit a motor response as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure. We hypothesized that cocaine-exposed children would perform worse than unexposed children on the Contrary Tapping task. Results indicated that cocaine exposure, high environmental risk, male gender, and low child IQ each were related to poorer inhibitory control. An interaction indicated that cocaine effects were specific to children who lived in relatively low-risk environments. Cocaine-exposed children made an error sooner than unexposed children in low-risk environments but in the same trial as both exposed and unexposed children living in high-risk environments. Potential underlying mechanisms and the importance of examining cocaine exposure effects in the context of childrens existing environment are discussed.

Facial Expressivity at 4 Months: A Context by Expression Analysis

The specificity predicted by differential emotions theory (DET) for early facial expressions in response to 5 different eliciting situations was studied in a sample of 4-month-old infants (n = 150). Infants were videotaped during tickle, sour taste, jack-in-the-box, arm restraint, and masked-stranger situations and their expressions were coded second by second. Infants showed a variety of facial expressions in each situation; however, more infants exhibited positive (joy and surprise) than negative expressions (anger, disgust, fear, and sadness) across all situations except sour taste. Consistent with DET-predicted specificity, joy expressions were the most common in response to tickling, and were less common in response to other situations. Surprise expressions were the most common in response to the jack-in-the-box, as predicted, but also were the most common in response to the arm restraint and masked-stranger situations, indicating a lack of specificity. No evidence of predicted specificity was found for anger, disgust, fear, and sadness expressions. Evidence of individual differences in expressivity within situations, as well as stability in the pattern across situations, underscores the need to examine both child and contextual factors in studying emotional development. The results provide little support for the DET postulate of situational specificity and suggest that a synthesis of differential emotions and dynamic systems theories of emotional expression should be considered.

The early utterances of preterm infants

This study examined the utterances of infants horn preterm in order to ascertain whether there were any differences in speech-sound production between healthy preterm infants and those who had suffered perinatal insult. Thirty-three infants whose corrected ages ranged from nine months to 22 months were assessed. Of these, 21 had suffered intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH); the remaining 12 acted as controls. the assessment measure was derived from the literature on early vocalisations through to two-word combinations. These assessments were administered by a speech therapist and a medical student. Results showed a high correlation with the results of a standardised test of expressive communication administered by a psychologist. Both groups of subjects showed delay in speech-sound acquisition but the IVH infants showed a more severe delay and wider range of performance than did the control group. These findings and their implications are discussed together with others relating to the most propitious situa...