Objective

To estimate the proportion of children who receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP) following grade retention in elementary school.

Design/setting

Descriptive analysis of a nationally representative, longitudinal cohort.

Participants

Children retained in K/1 and 3rd grade for presumed academic reasons, followed through fifth grade.

Outcome measure

Presence or absence of an IEP.

Results

300 children retained for presumed academic reasons in K/1, and 80 in 3rd grade were included in the study. Of the K/1 retainees, 68% never received an IEP over the subsequent four to five years; of the 3rd grade retainees, 73% never received an IEP. K/1 retainees in the highest SES quintile and suburban K/1 retainees were less likely to receive an IEP than retained children in all other SES quintiles (aOR 0.17; 95% CI 0.05-0.62) and in rural communities (aOR 0.16; 95% CI 0.06-0.44), respectively. Among K/1 retainees with persistent low academic achievement in reading and math (as assessed by standardized testing), 37% and 28%, respectively, never received an IEP.

Conclusions

The majority of children retained in K/1 or 3rd grade for academic reasons, including a many of those who demonstrate sustained academic difficulties, never receive an IEP during elementary school. Further studies are important to elucidate whether retained elementary school children are being denied their rights to special education services. In the meantime, early grade retention may provide an opportunity for pediatricians to help families advocate for appropriate special education evaluations for children experiencing school difficulties.

Objective

To examine associations between exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and clinical patterns of symptoms and disorders in preschool children.

Method

Two hundred and thirteen referred and non-referred children, ages 24 to 48 months (MN = 34.9, SD = 6.7 months) were studied. Lifetime exposure to PTEs (family violence and non-interpersonal events) and recent stressful life events were assessed with the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA) and Child Life Events Scale. Child psychiatric symptoms and disorders were assessed with parent-reports in the PAPA, a comprehensive, developmentally sensitive interview. Sociodemographic risk, parental anxiety and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression, Beck Anxiety Inventory), and child developmental level (Mullen Scales of Early Learning) also were assessed.

Results

Violence exposure was broadly associated with psychiatric status in the areas of depression, separation anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and conduct problems, whereas potentially traumatic non-interpersonal exposure was associated with phobic anxiety. The majority of the associations between violence exposure and preschoolers’ symptoms were significant even when other key factors, including economic disadvantage and parental mood and anxiety symptoms, were controlled statistically. However, parental depressive/anxious symptoms may have partially or fully mediated the relationships between violence exposure and depressive and conduct symptoms.

Conclusions

Evidence of robust associations between violence exposure and early childhood internalizing and externalizing disorders and symptoms highlights the need for longitudinal prospective research concerning neurodevelopmental mechanisms and pathways. Findings underscore the relevance of assessing trauma exposure, particularly interpersonal violence, to identify young children at risk.

Perspective on the paper by Saito et al (see page 113)

Context

Maternal depression and in-home violence are independently associated with the use of physical punishment on children; however, the combined impact of these factors on the practice of physical punishment is unknown, as is the extent to which their relationship to physical punishment varies with child behavior.

Objectives

1) Determine the combined impact of maternal depression and violence exposure on one physical punishment practice, smacking; 2) Explore the role of child behaviors in this relationship.

Methods

Multivariable regression analysis of a nationally representative sample of US kindergarten children. Maternal depressive symptoms, violence exposure, and use of smacking as a discipline technique were measured by parent interview. Child behaviors were reported by teachers.

Results

12,764 mother-child dyads were included in the analysis. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for smacking among mothers with depressive symptoms was 1.59 (95% CI 1.40, 1.80); among mothers exposed to in-home violence, 1.48 (95% CI 1.18, 1.85); among dually exposed mothers, 2.51 (95% CI 1.87, 3.37). Adjusting these models for child self-control or externalizing behavior yielded no change in these associations, and no effect modification by child behavior was detected. Among mothers reporting to smack their children, depression was associated with an increased smacking frequency (aIRR 1.12; 95% CI 1.01, 1.24); however, this association was reduced to borderline significance when adjusting the models for child self-control or externalizing behavior (aIRRs 1.10; 95% CI 1.00, 1.21). Depressed mothers who were also exposed to violence demonstrated higher rates of smacking (aIRR 1.29; 95% CI 1.09, 1.53); this remained stable when adjusting for child behaviors.

Conclusion

Maternal depression and violence exposure are associated with smacking as a means of punishment. The magnitude of this association is increased when depression and violence occur together. When coexistent, they also appear associated with the frequency of smacking. Child self-control and externalizing behavior do not appear to impact substantially the association between maternal depressive symptoms, violence exposure, and smacking.

Context

Despite recent studies that failed to show catastrophic effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, popular attitudes and public policies still reflect the belief that cocaine is a uniquely dangerous teratogen.

Objective

To critically review outcomes in early childhood after prenatal cocaine exposure in 5 domains: physical growth; cognition; language skills; motor skills; and behavior, attention, affect, and neurophysiology.

Data Sources

Search of MEDLINE and Psychological Abstracts from 1984 to October 2000.

Study Selection

Studies selected for detailed review (1) were published in a peerreviewed English-language journal; (2) included a comparison group; (3) recruited samples prospectively in the perinatal period; (4) used masked assessment; and (5) did not include a substantial proportion of subjects exposed in utero to opiates, amphetamines, phencyclidine, or maternal human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Data Extraction

Thirty-six of 74 articles met criteria and were reviewed by 3 authors. Disagreements were resolved by consensus.

Data Synthesis

After controlling for confounders, there was no consistent negative association between prenatal cocaine exposure and physical growth, developmental test scores, or receptive or expressive language. Less optimal motor scores have been found up to age 7 months but not thereafter, and may reflect heavy tobacco exposure. No independent cocaine effects have been shown on standardized parent and teacher reports of child behavior scored by accepted criteria. Experimental paradigms and novel statistical manipulations of standard instruments suggest an association between prenatal cocaine exposure and decreased attentiveness and emotional expressivity, as well as differences on neurophysiologic and attentional/affective findings.

Conclusions

Among children aged 6 years or younger, there is no convincing evidence that prenatal cocaine exposure is associated with developmental toxic effects that are different in severity, scope, or kind from the sequelae of multiple other risk factors. Many findings once thought to be specific effects of in utero cocaine exposure are correlated with other factors, including prenatal exposure to tobacco, marijuana, or alcohol, and the quality of the child’s environment. Further replication is required of preliminary neurologic findings.

Purpose

To evaluate whether children’s Exposure to Violence (EV) is associated with their own or their friends’ use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD).

Methods

The Violence Exposure Scale for Children-Revised (VEX-R) and the Substance Exposure Assessment (SXA) were given to 104 children participating in a longitudinal study of in-utero cocaine exposure (IUCE) at age 8.5, 9.5, and 11 years. Survival analyses evaluated the association of the quartile of VEX total score (higher scores indicating more violence exposure) at age 8.5 years, with time to first report of their own and their friends’ use of ATOD from age 8.5-11 years.

Results

The sample consisted of 90% African-American/Caribbean children (mean age 8.5 years, SD 3 years), 53% males, and 49% with IUCE. The percentage of children who reported having substance-using friends was 12% at 8.5 years, 25% by 9.5 years, and 45% by 11 years. In multivariate survival analyses controlling for caregiver type, IUCE category, and child gender, children in the upper quartile of VEX-R total score at age 8.5 years were at significantly greater risk of having reported friends’ use of ATOD by age 11 compared to those in the first through third quartiles (hazard ratio = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.14, 4.23; p = .02). Quartiles of the VEX score, however, were not significantly associated with children’s acknowledgment of their own use (p = .85).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest an association between EV in childhood and report of peer ATOD use at school age. Campaigns to prevent ATOD use should address the impact of childhood exposure to violence.

Complex methodologic challenges face researchers studying the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on infant outcome. These include unavoidable imprecision in ascertaining the gestational timing and dose of cocaine to which the fetus was exposed and difficulties in identifying and quantifying the confounding, mediating, and moderating variables. Review of research on neonatal behavioral and cranial ultrasound findings following in utero cocaine exposure is used to illustrate these issues. We conclude that there are measurable but not dramatic dose-related effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on infant central nervous system structure and function. The effects of dose of prenatal cocaine exposure on later child development remain to be determined. Such research would be facilitated by a scientific consensus delineating relative doses of prenatal cocaine exposure.

Objective

To evaluate whether prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE), or the interaction between PCE and contextual variables, is associated with children's language at age 6 and 9.5 years, adjusting for relevant covariates.

Methods

Analyses were based on 160 low-income, urban children from a prospective study who completed a standardized language assessment at 6 and 9.5 years. PCE was determined using neonatal meconium assays and maternal self-report.

Results

Significant interaction effects of PCE on language outcomes were found in multivariate longitudinal analyses using generalized estimating equations (GEE). Children with PCE had lower receptive language than unexposed children at 6 but not at 9.5 years, lower expressive language if they had lower birthweight, and lower expressive and total language if they were female. Other risk (e.g., violence exposure) and protective factors (e.g., preschool experience) were related to language outcomes regardless of PCE status.

Conclusions

Age, birthweight, and gender moderated the relation between PCE and school-aged children's language.

Little is known about rates and correlates of suicidal ideation among nonclinical samples of preadolescents from low-income urban backgrounds. Using the Children’s Depression Inventory, we measured suicidal ideation in 131 preadolescent urban children (49% female, 90% African American/Caribbean) participating in an ongoing prospective longitudinal study of prenatal cocaine exposure and children’s outcome. Suicidal ideation was reported by 14.5% of the children in this sample at 9 to 10 years of age. Children’s reports of depressive symptoms, exposure to violence, and distress symptoms in response to witnessing violence were associated with suicidal ideation, but prenatal cocaine exposure, parent-rated child behavior, and caregivers’ psychological distress symptoms were not. Suicidal ideation may be more prevalent among preadolescents from urban, low-income backgrounds than clinicians suspect, particularly among children exposed to violence.

Objectives

To examine how much distress children report in response to violence that they have witnessed and how this is associated with parental reports of children’s behavior.

Methods

As part of a study of in utero exposure to cocaine, children completed the Levonn interview for assessing children’s symptoms of distress in response to witnessing violence. The children’s care givers completed the Exposure to Violence Interview (EVI), a caretaker-report measure of the child’s exposure to violent events during the last 12 months. The EVI was analyzed as a 3-level variable: no exposure, low exposure, and high exposure. The caregivers also completed the Children’s Behavior Checklist (CBCL).

Results

Of 94 six-year-old children, 58% had no exposure to violence, 36% had low exposure to violence, and 6% had high exposure to violence, according to caretaker reports. The children’s median ±SD Levonn score was 64 (SD ± 19.3). The mean (SD ± CBCL total T-score was 53 (SD ± 10.2). In multiple regression analyses with gender, low and high exposure on EVI, Levonn, and prenatal cocaine exposure status as predictors, the Levonn score explained 4.8% of total variance in children’s CBCL internalizing scores, 9.1% of the total variance in CBCL externalizing score, and 12.2% of the total variance in CBCL total score (P = .04, P = .004, and P <.001, respectively).

Conclusions

After accounting for the caretaker’s report of the level of the child’s exposure to violence, the child’s own report significantly increased the amount of variance in predicting child behavior problems with the CBCL. These findings indicate that clinicians and researchers should elicit children’s own accounts of exposure to violence in addition to the caretakers’ when attempting to understand children’s behavior.

Objectives

The objectives of this study were 1) to assess whether there is an independent association between the level of prenatal cocaine exposure and infants’ developmental test scores after control of potential confounding variables; and 2) if such an association exists, to determine which biological and social variables, individually and in interaction with each other, may modify it.

Methods

In a prospective, longitudinal study of 203 urban term infants, 3 cocaine exposure groups were defined by maternal report and infant meconium assay: unexposed, heavier cocaine exposure (> 75th percentile self-reported days of use or meconium benzoylecognine concentration), or lighter cocaine exposure (all others). Examiners, masked to exposure history, tested infants at 6, 12, and 24 months of age with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.

Results

The final mixed linear regression model included as fixed covariates level of prenatal exposure to cocaine, alcohol, and cigarettes; prenatal marijuana exposure; gestational age and birth weight z score for gestational age; and gender. Age at test, caregiver at time of each test (biological mother, kinship caregiver, unrelated foster caregiver), and any previous child-focused early intervention were included as time-dependent covariates. There were no significant adverse main effects of level of cocaine exposure on Mental Development Index (MDI), Psychomotor Development Index (PDI), or Infant Behavior Record. Child-focused early intervention interacted with level of cocaine exposure such that heavily exposed children who received such intervention showed higher adjusted mean MDI scores than all other groups. Although the sample was born at or near term, there was also a significant interaction of cocaine exposure and gestational age on MDI scores, with those in the heavier exposure group born at slightly lower gestational age having higher mean MDI scores compared with other children born at that gestational age.

There was also a significant interaction on MDI between child’s age and caregiver. At 6 months, the adjusted MDI of children living with a kinship caregiver was 15.5 points lower than that of children living with their biological mother, but this effect was diminished and was no longer significant at 24 months (difference in means: 4.3 points). The adjusted mean MDI of children in unrelated foster care at 6 months was 8.2 points lower than children of biological mothers, whereas it was 7.3 points higher at 24 months.

Early intervention attenuated the age-related decline in PDI scores for all groups. Birth weight < 10th percentile was associated with lower PDI scores for children with heavier cocaine exposure and with lower MDI scores for all groups.

Conclusions

Heavier prenatal cocaine exposure is not an independent risk factor for depressed scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development up to 24 months of age when term infants are compared with lighter exposed or unexposed infants of the same demographic background. Cocaine-exposed infants with birth weight below the 10th percentile for gestational age and gender and those placed with kinship caregivers are at increased risk for less optimal developmental outcomes. Pediatric clinicians should refer cocaine-exposed children to the child-focused developmental interventions available for all children at developmental risk.