Drinking During Pregnancy Decreases Word Attack and Arithmetic Scores on Standardized Tests: Adolescent Data From a Population‐Based Prospective Study
- 11 April 1994
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research
- Vol. 18 (2), 248-254
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-0277.1994.tb00009.x
Abstract
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.Keywords
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