Drinking During Pregnancy Decreases Word Attack and Arithmetic Scores on Standardized Tests: Adolescent Data From a Population-Based Prospective Study.

Autor: Streissguth, Ann P., Barr, Helen M., Olson, Heather Carrnichael, Sampson, Paul D., Bookstein, Fred L., Burgess, Donna M.
Zdroj: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research; 1994, Vol. 18 Issue 2, p248-254, 7p
Abstrakt: Women (1529) were interviewed in midpregnancy, and a cohort of their children has been examined at various ages. The two standardized tests presented herein are part of a large battery of tests administered when the children were 14 years old. 'Word Attack' ( n=462) measures phonological processing on a task involving the reading of pseudowords in nontimed performance. 'Arithmetic' ( n=191) measures auditorily processed mental computations in timed performance. Scores on both tests were associated with prenatal alcohol exposure in a dose-dependent fashion. These effects were robust when considered in relation to a wide variety of potentially confounding variables, such as prenatal exposure to tobacco and other drugs, sociodemographic characteristics, and traumatic postnatal events. A variety of alcohol scores were related to these two performance measures, but those involving a massing of drinks on a given occasion had the strongest association. The higher the average number of drinks/occasion, the poorer the offspring performance on tasks thought to underlie numerical problem solving and reading proficiency. Earlier reports of prenatal, alcohol-related neurobehavioral deficits in childhood have now been extended into adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index