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Children prenatally exposed to substances: Gender‐related differences in outcome from infancy to 3 years of age
Author(s) -
Moe Vibeke,
Slinning Kari
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.1005
Subject(s) - bayley scales of infant development , socioeconomic status , medicine , pediatrics , gestational age , demography , psychology , pregnancy , psychiatry , psychomotor learning , population , cognition , environmental health , sociology , genetics , biology
A group of 78 children with polysubstance exposure in utero and a comparison group of 58 children with no known risk status were followed from infancy to age 3 years. Sixty‐six children (84.6%) in the exposed group were taken into custody, and were either placed in foster homes or adopted. The foster parents were specially recruited to provide care to infants at risk. The substance‐exposed group exhibited significantly lower birthweight, gestational age, and head circumference than the comparison group. The perinatal data demonstrated no gender differences. The children were assessed on the Bayley‐II Scales of Infant Development at 1, 2, and 3 years of age. The results yielded a significant group by gender interaction on the Bayley‐II MDI. The boys, but not the girls who had been prenatally exposed to polydrugs, alcohol, and tobacco earned significantly lower MDI scores at 1, 2, and 3 years of age than the comparison group at the corresponding ages. The gender differences were still statistically significant when controlling for the effects of prematurity and the caregivers' socioeconomic status. This suggests a special vulnerability in prenatally substance‐exposed boys, perhaps because of cumulative risk. However, this group of exposed children did show a developmental catch‐up across the first 3 years of life. We suggest that the optimized caregiving environment had a buffering effect, and may have compensated for initial developmental lags in this group of children. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.