PEDIATRICS Vol. 35 No. 3 March 1965, pp. 434-444
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CORRELATES OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT: PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS AT SIX TO SEVEN YEARS OF AGE

Gerald Wiener Ph.D.1, Rowland V. Rider Sc.D.1, Wallace C. Oppel M.S.1, Liselotte K. Fischer Ph.D.1, and Paul A. Harper M.D.1

1 Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Four hundred and forty-two low birth-weight children and 415 full-time children were examined when 6-7 years using a battery of six psychological measures. In addition, data were available as regards their families' socioeconomic class and mothers' child-rearing practices. Perinatal information was obtained from hospital records and neurological data from a pediatric examination performed when subjects were 40 weeks of age. Data were analyzed only for those children whose IQ's were ge 60, and who were free of gross sensory or motor handicaps, or severe emotional disturbances. Results suggest the following conclusions:

1. Premature children are psychologically impaired when race, maternal attitudes and practices, and social class factors are simultaneously controlled. Such impairment is not secondary to personality trait disturbances.

2. The degree of impairment increases [SEE TABLE XI IN SOURCE PDF] with decreasing birth weight.

3. Lower birth weight is a cause of poor performance largely in so far as low birth weight is associated with perinatal trauma, or a composite index suggestive of neurological damage, or both.

4. Perceptual-motor disturbances (as measured by the Bender Gestalt Test), flaws in comprehension and abstract reasoning, perseveration trends, poor gross motor development, immature speech, and impaired IQ significantly identify low birth-weight children. The effectiveness of these measures' discriminatory power apparently is in the order listed.

5. Statistical interaction of low birth-weight or neurological damage with race, socioeconomic status, or subject's sex was not obtained for any of the six psychological measures.

Submitted on August 2, 1964
Accepted on November 5, 1964




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