The present study examines variation in the effect of birth weight on children's early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes by family socioeconomic status (SES). It is hypothesized that not only will lower birth weight children display worse cognitive and socioemotional outcomes prior to school entry, as prior research has found, but that effects…

Exposure to stress early in life permanently shapes activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and the brain. Prenatally, glucocorticoids pass through the placenta to the fetus with postnatal impacts on brain development, birth weight (BW), and HPA axis functioning. Little is known about the biological mechanisms by which…

Data were analyzed from a population-based, longitudinal sample of 8,650 U.S. children to (a) identify factors associated with or predictive of oral vocabulary size at 24 months of age and (b) evaluate whether oral vocabulary size is uniquely predictive of academic and behavioral functioning at kindergarten entry. Children from higher…

Maternal smoking during pregnancy retards fetal growth and depresses infant birth weight. The magnitude of these effects may be moderated by fetal genotype. The current study investigated maternal smoking, fetal genotype, and fetal growth in a large population sample of dizygotic twins. Maternal smoking retarded fetal growth in a dose-dependent…

This study tests a mediated model of boys' and girls' weight status and math performance with 6,250 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Five data points spanning kindergarten entry (mean age = 68.46 months) through fifth grade (mean age = 134.60 months) were analyzed. Three weight status groups were identified: persistent…

The authors examined internalizing behavior problems at middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood and brain-based measures of stress vulnerability in 154 right-handed, nonimpaired young adults (M age = 23 years): 71 (30 males, 41 females) born at extremely low birth weight (ELBW; less than 1,000 g) and 83 (35 males, 48 females) controls…

Maintaining balance is a central problem for new walkers. To examine how infants cope with the additional balance control problems induced by load carriage, 14-month-olds were loaded with 15% of their body weight in shoulder-packs. Both symmetrical and asymmetrical loads disrupted alternating gait patterns and caused less mature footfall patterns.…

This study investigates the link between the frequency of family breakfasts and dinners and child academic and behavioral outcomes in a panel sample of 21,400 children aged 5-15. It complements previous work by examining younger and older children separately and by using information on a large number of controls and rigorous analytic methods to…

Associations between sleep and the body mass index (BMI) and overweight status of children and adolescents were estimated using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 2,281 children aged 3-12 years at baseline. Controlling for baseline BMI, children who slept less, went to bed later, or got up earlier at the time of the first…

Associations between antenatal maternal anxiety, measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and disorders in 8- and 9-year-olds were studied prospectively in 71 normal mothers and their 72 firstborns. Clinical scales were completed by the mother, the child, the teacher, and an external observer. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses…

The study aimed to develop techniques for objective recording of mother and infant behaviors, to describe the interactive patterns of black inner-city mothers and their newborns, and to determine the effect of selected background and examination variables on these behaviors and interactions. (JMB)

Investigated the relationship between anthropometric indices and behavioral development during the first two years of life in rural Guatemala. Body length and weight most strongly correlated with behavioral development. When length and weight were controlled statistically, variance in behavioral development was accounted for. (Author/DB)

Thirty-one normal neonates were monitored for 24 hours on a newly developed movement monitor which provided measures of noncrying activity and counts of various movement amplitudes. (Author/SDH)