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Drinking During Pregnancy Decreases Word Attack and Arithmetic Scores on Standardized Tests: Adolescent Data From a Population‐Based Prospective Study
Author(s) -
Streissguth Ann P.,
Barr Helen M.,
Olson Heather Carrnichael,
Sampson Paul D.,
Bookstein Fred L.,
Burgess Donna M.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1994.tb00009.x
Subject(s) - word (group theory) , population , statistics , pregnancy , arithmetic , psychology , demography , medicine , mathematics , environmental health , sociology , biology , genetics , geometry
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.