Intelligence Quotient Scores of 4-Year-Old Children: Social-Environmental Risk Factors

Abstract

Verbal IQ scores in a socially heterogeneous sample of 215 4-year-old children were highly related to a cumulative environmental risk index composed of maternal, family and cultural variables. Different combinations of equal numbers of risk factors produced similar effects on IQ, providing evidence (1) that no single factor identified here uniquely enhances or limits early intellectual achievement and (2) that cumulative effects from multiple risk factors increase the probability that development will be compromised. The multiple risk index predicted substantially more variance in the outcome measure than did any single risk factor alone, including socioeconomic status. High-risk children were more than 24 times as likely to have IQs below 85 than low-risk children.

The impact of domestic violence on the maternal-child relationship and preschool-age children's functioning.

“…This finding may indicate that it is the accumulation of stressors (as measured in the life stress inventory) rather than the specific stressor (e.g., domestic violence) that has its impact on the functioning of preschool children. This finding supports the cumulative risk model described by Sameroff, Seifer, Barocas, Zax, and Greenspan (1987), who found that the number of risk factors rather than any one specific stressor was related to preschoolers' intellectual functioning.…”

Allostasis and the human brain: Integrating models of stress from the social and life sciences.

“…It was noted that more explicit measurement of the chronicity, as well as the level of change or threat posed by a given stressor, often improved the amount of variance explained in the outcomes, (e.g., G. W. Brown & Harris, 1978;B. S. Dohrenwend, Ashkenasy, Krasnoff, & Dohrenwend, 1978;Holmes & Rahe, 1967;Pearlin & Schooler, 1978;Wheaton, 1999), and it became clear that changes in environmental context over time made significant independent contributions to the outcomes of stressor exposure (e.g., Baltes & Baltes, 1990;Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987;Hobfoll, Johnson, Ennis, & Jackson, 2003), Holahan, Moos, Holahan, & Cronkite, 1999;Lazarus, 1993aLazarus, , 1999Masten et al, 1988;Rutter, 1979;Sameroff, Seifer, Barocas, Zax, & Greenspan, 1987). Importantly, individual differences in cognitive and emotional responses to both stressor and context were found to be key factors in determining outcomes (e.g., anticipation, appraisal, coping, learning, and other types of information processing; Foa & Kozak, 1986;Hobfoll, 1989;Holahan, Moos, Holahan, & Cronkite, 2000;Ironson et al, 2000;Lazarus, 1991;Siegal & Allan, 1998;Sterling & Eyer, 1988;Stone, 1995;Toates, 1995;Tolin & Foa, 2002;Wheaton, 1985).…”

Arousal modulation in cocaine-exposed infants.

“…Similar cumulative environmental risk measures have been found to account for more variance in child outcome variables than single factors, including socioeconomic status (Bendersky & Lewis, 1994;McGauhey, Starfield, Alexander, & Knsminger, 1991;Sameroff, Seifer. Baldwin, & Baldwin, 1993;Sameroff, Seifer. Barocas.…”