Behavior in term, small for gestational age preschoolers

Aims: To evaluate whether being born small for gestational age (SGA) was as sociated with an increased frequency of preschool behavioral problems. Stud y design: Follow-up study at 5 years of age. Subjects: A population based c ohort of 318 term infants who were SGA, defined as having a birthweight les s than the 15th percentile for gestational age, and without major handicap such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation, and a random control sample o f 307 appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants. Outcome measures. The Personality Inventory for Children and the Yale Children's Inventory (compl eted by the mothers), and child behavior during psychometric testing. Resul ts: Behavior problems was not more common among the SGA children. The resul ts were not confounded by a wide range of parental demographic and child re aring factors, including maternal non-verbal problem solving abilities, chi ld rearing style, and maternal psychological distress. However, the parenta l factors explained 13% of the variance in a summary score of child behavio r compared to 1% explained by SGA vs. AGA status. The SGA children were not more sensitive to the negative impacts of parental risk factors than AGA c ontrols. The study does not address the outcome of severely growth-retarded SGA infants. Conclusion. Being born moderately SGA is not a significant ri sk factor for preschool behavior problems. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Irelan d Ltd. All rights reserved.