DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECTS OF MATERNAL INTELLIGENCE, MATERNAL AGE, INCOME, AND HOME-ENVIRONMENT ON INTELLIGENCE OF PRETERM, LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT CHILDREN

Low birth weight (LBW) infants are at elevated risk for adverse develo pmental outcomes, including impaired cognition. From a public health p erspective, interventions designed primarily to prevent and/or seconda rily to avert intellectual impairments could have substantial impact o n social and fiscal costs associated with LBW. But LBW is a heterogeno us condition correlated with demographic, biological, psychological, a nd social variables. In this study we examined direct and indirect eff ects of maternal intelligence, age, income, and home environment on 3- year intelligence among premature LBW children. Hierarchical regressio n analyses were employed to determine the extent to which SES (measure d by family income) and home environment mediate effects of maternal I Q and age on child IQ. Maternal IQ was found to have major direct and indirect consequences. Indirect effects were mediated by income and ho me environment. A small part of the influence of income is explained b y home environment. Taken together with results of other studies, thes e findings suggest that standard family interventions to improve cogni tive outcome for children of poor and intellectually compromised women are not likely to produce impressive results.