BEHAVIORAL-ADJUSTMENT IN SCHOOL OF VERY-LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT CHILDREN

The school-based behavioural adjustment at 7-8 years of a cohort of 24 3 prematurely born, very low birthweight (< 1501 g) children and their normal birthweight controls is reported. The findings indicate that t he children born preterm (both male and female) were rated by their te achers as expressing more behaviour problems than their controls, and were less well adjusted to the school environment. The deficits noted in the preterms applied across the social classes, with no amelioratio n noted in preterms of higher social class. It is speculated that the problem behaviours reflect a failure in self-regulatory functions.