PRENATAL COCAINE EXPOSURE AND CHILD-BEHAVIOR

Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate previous teacher repo rts that children exposed to cocaine prenatally have more problem beha viors. Methods. A historical, prospective design was used. Maternal su bjects (n = 116) of 6-year-old singleton, term (greater than or equal to 36 weeks) children, and the children's first-grade teachers (n = 10 2) agreed to participate. The child's first-grade teacher, blinded to study design and exposure status, rated the child's behavior with the Conners' Teacher Rating Scales (CTRS) and an investigator-developed sc ale, the Problem Behavior Scale (PROBS 14), measuring behaviors report ed by educators to be specific to cocaine exposure. Mothers were inter viewed by telephone regarding demographic and socioeconomic factors. R esults. Although the cocaine-exposed group had higher (more problem be haviors) for each of the CTRS subscales, the overall multivariate anal ysis of variance for the CTRS was not significant. Children exposed to cocaine prenatally had higher scores (more problem behaviors) for 11 of the 14 PROBS items and the overall multivariate analysis of varianc e relating prenatal cocaine exposure to the PROBS was significant (Wil kes' lambda = .775), even after controlling for gender and prenatal ex posure to alcohol and cigarettes. Conclusions. This pilot study suppor ts that teachers blinded to exposure status of early elementary studen ts did rate the cocaine-exposed group as demonstrating significantly m ore problem behaviors than control children. Although an important fir st step, postnatal factors that also may influence behavior were not e valuated; hence, causation is not addressed.