Physiological responses to social and cognitive challenges in 8-year olds with a history of prenatal cocaine exposure.

Cocaine-exposed infants have been found to have altered arousal responses but little is known about such responses in later childhood. Physiological responses to stressors were used to assess the arousal modulation of school-aged, cocaine-exposed children (n = 73) and two contrast groups, socioeconomically-matched controls (n = 58) and children with behavioral disturbance (n = 35). The behaviorally disturbed group had the highest heart rate across conditions but demonstrated a pattern of hyporesponsiveness to the stressors.

Prenatal alcohol exposure and ability, academic achievement, and school functioning in adolescence: a longitudinal follow-up.

Background: Prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with learning, behavioral, and academic problems even in children without the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

Objective: To examine the prenatal alcohol exposure and ability, academic achievement, and school functioning in adolescence.

Methods: In a longitudinal cohort, intelligence, academic performance, and school functioning were evaluated in 265 low socioeconomic status (SES) adolescents (M age = 15.

Prenatal cocaine exposure: a comparison of 2-year-old children in parental and nonparental care.

Effects of prenatal cocaine exposure and parental versus nonparental care on outcome at 2 years of age were examined. The sample included 83 cocaine-exposed and 63 nonexposed children and their caregivers; 49 and 34 of the cocaine-exposed children experienced parental and nonparental care, respectively. Prenatal drug exposure was not related directly to children's outcome at 2 years of age.

Auditory and visual sustained attention in adolescents prenatally exposed to alcohol.

Background: Sustained attention problems and impulsivity are reported in association with prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol syndrome, but research in this area is limited and contradictory.

Methods: Auditory and visual sustained attention were investigated in 265 low-income, predominantly African-American, adolescents (mean age, 15.12 years; SD, 0.

The effects of prenatal drug exposure, term status, and caregiving on arousal and arousal modulation in 8-week-old infants.

Prenatal exposure to cocaine, as well as other drugs, has been linked with "dysregulation," usually defined as problems in arousal and/or behavioral regulation. This study was designed to describe the physiological basis of dysregulation as a function of prenatal cocaine/polydrug exposure and term status. Eight-week-old infants were selected because they are just developing the ability to modulate arousal.