Comparison of the adaptive functioning of children prenatally exposed to alcohol to a nonexposed clinical sample

Background: Several studies show impairments in the social and adaptive beh aviors of children prenatally exposed to alcohol. However, there remains li mited consensus on whether the alcohol exposure directly affects social fun ctioning or whether its effect is mediated by deficits in IQ. In addition, no studies have investigated whether deficits in social functioning are,sig nificantly more pronounced in children prenatally exposed to alcohol than i n children referred to psychiatric treatment who were not prenatally expose d. We explored the effect of alcohol exposure on social and adaptive functi oning and explored whether or not social and adaptive functioning are signi ficantly more impaired in children prenatally exposed to alcohol than in a clinical sample of children. Methods: A sample of 33 alcohol-exposed children was compared with a sample of 33 clinic-referred nonexposed children. The groups were compared on mea sures of communication, daily living skills, and socialization. The groups were matched on sex, age, IQ, and outpatient or inpatient status. Results: Analyses revealed that the prenatally alcohol-exposed children did not differ significantly from the nonexposed children in any of the domain s of adaptive functioning. However, with age, exposed children showed a mor e rapid decline in socialization standard scores compared with the nonexpos ed clinical sample. Conclusions: Young children who were exposed to alcohol prenatally show def icits in all domains of adaptive functioning. Although these deficits do no t seem to differ from those exhibited by young children with psychiatric pr oblems but no prenatal exposure, deficits in socialization behavior of pren atally exposed children may become more significant with age.