Small-for-Gestational Age Birth Confers Similar Educational Performance through Middle School.

Objective: To estimate the association between small for gestational age (SGA) at birth and educational performance on standardized testing and disability prevalence in elementary and middle school.

Study Design: Through linked birth certificates and school records, surviving infants born at 23-41 weeks of gestation who entered Florida's public schools 1998-2009 were identified. Twenty-three SGA definitions (3rd-25th percentile) were derived.

Evidence that prenatal testosterone transfer from male twins reduces the fertility and socioeconomic success of their female co-twins.

During sensitive periods in utero, gonadal steroids help organize biological sex differences in humans and other mammals. In litter-bearing species, chromosomal females passively exposed to prenatal testosterone from male littermates exhibit altered physical and behavioral traits as adults. The consequences of such effects are less well understood in humans, but recent near-doubling of twinning rates in many countries since 1980, secondary to advanced maternal age and increased reliance on in vitro fertilization, means that an increasing subset of females in many populations may be exposed to prenatal testosterone from their male co-twin.

Socioeconomic status and genetic influences on cognitive development.

Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families, including recent proposals that the pattern is a particularly US phenomenon. We used matched birth and school records from Florida siblings and twins born in 1994-2002 to provide the largest, most population-diverse consideration of this hypothesis to date.

Educational Performance of Children Born Prematurely.

Importance: Survivors of preterm birth often present with medical morbidities; however, variation in their long-term educational performance has not been well described.

Objective: To estimate the association between gestational age and 4 outcomes in school-aged children: readiness to enter kindergarten, scores on standardized tests in elementary and middle school, gifted status, and low performance.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In a retrospective cohort study, children born in Florida between 1992 and 2002 at 23 to 41 weeks' gestation who entered Florida's public schools between 1995 and 2012 were assessed for kindergarten readiness and tested in mathematics and reading in grades 3 through 8.

Long-term Cognitive and Health Outcomes of School-Aged Children Who Were Born Late-Term vs Full-Term.

Importance: Late-term gestation (defined as the 41st week of pregnancy) is associated with increased risk of perinatal health complications. It is not known to what extent late-term gestation is associated with long-term cognitive and physical outcomes. Information about long-term outcomes may influence physician and patient decisions regarding optimal pregnancy length.

Maternal and infant factors associated with excess kindergarten costs.

Objective: To estimate the excess educational costs at kindergarten from infant and maternal factors that are reported routinely at birth.

Methods: Birth and school records were analyzed for all children who were born in Florida between September 1, 1990, and August 31, 1991, and entered kindergarten from 1996 through 1999 (N = 120,554). Outcome measure was cost to state, derived from base allocation for students in regular classrooms plus multiplier weights for those who were assigned to 8 mutually exclusive special education categories or who repeated kindergarten.