Thomas A. Rizzo

Prenatal and perinatal influences on long-term psychomotor development in offspring of diabetic mothers☆

OBJECTIVE Our purpose was to assess to what extent disturbances in antepartum maternal metabolism and perinatal complications and morbidities contribute to poorer psychomotor development in offspring of diabetic mothers. STUDY DESIGN One hundred ninety-six pregnant women and their singleton offspring participated in this prospective cohort-analytic study. Ninety-five women had pregestational diabetes mellitus, and 101 women had gestational diabetes mellitus. Serial estimates of circulating maternal fuels were obtained throughout each index pregnancy along with detailed records of the perinatal course and outcome. Offspring were administered the psychomotor development index of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at age 2 years and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test Of Motor Proficiency at ages 6, 8, and 9 years. Tests were performed blinded to the mothers antepartum metabolic status, and perinatal history, and the childs previous test scores. Partial correlations and analyses of covariance were used to control for other influences and confounds, such as family socioeconomic status, racial or ethnic origin, patient group (i.e., pregestational or gestational diabetes mellitus), and sex of child. RESULTS Childrens average score on the Bruininks-Oseretsky test at ages 6 to 9 years correlated significantly with maternal second (p < 0.02) and third trimester (p < 0.001) beta-hydroxybutyrate. There was also a borderline association between the childrens scores on the psychomotor development index at age 2 years and maternal third-trimester beta-hydroxybutyrate levels (p = 0.06). No other correlations approached significance. CONCLUSIONS Intrauterine metabolic experiences continue to influence the neurodevelopmental course in offspring of diabetic mothers. Prevailing practices in diabetes management and obstetric and neonatal care appear to effectively mitigate the potential long-term effects of most perinatal complications and morbidities. Management and obstetric and neonatal care appear to effectively miltigate the potential long-term effects of most perinatal complications and morbidities.

Discussione and Friendship: Socialization Processes in the Peer Culture of Italian Nursery School Children

This paper addresses the lack of theoretical work on young children in sociology by presenting an interpretive approach to childhood socialization. This approach extends traditional views of human development by demonstrating that socialization is a collective process that occurs in a social, rather than in a private, realm. To illustrate the interpretive approach, we present a multilayered analysis of two phases of a lengthy verbal routine discussionn) among Italian nursery school children. The analysis demonstrates how (1) the routine of discussion is produced sociolinguistically; (2) the production of the routine builds on and extends shared knowledge basic to peer culture; and (3) the children, in the course of producing the routine, attempt to deal with aspects of the world they do not fully grasp and, thereby, move closer toward appropriating certain elements of the adult culture.

Social support processes in early childhood friendship: A comparative study of ecological congruences in enacted support

Examined congruences between childrens friendships and classroom social ecologies in three distinct settings, and poses that such congruences or social adaptations are aptly characterized as a process of enacted social support; i.e., an interpersonal transaction involving the reduction or evasion of stress. Data were derived from Corsaros recent ethnographics of childrens friendship and peer culture in a University Preschool (Corsaro, 1985) and Head Start center (Corsaro, 1994), and from Rizzos (1989) ethnography of friendship development among first-grade children. Despite vast differences across settings, the nature and activities of childrens friendships appeared consistently linked with specific organizational features in their life-worlds and in this way may constitute significant interpersonal and individual adaptations to that world. In this view, friendship is best seen not as a static entity, which children appropriate in a consistent fashion, but as a general and malleable concept, which they modify and use in a collaborative fashion to address shared psychosocial concerns. Findings are related to research on the link between perceived and enacted support, and on the interplay between relational and social support processes.