The Effect of Birth weight on Child Development Prior to School Entry

Abstract

The present study examines variation in the effect of birth weight on children's early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes by family socioeconomic status (SES). It is hypothesized that not only will lower birth weight children display worse cognitive and socioemotional outcomes prior to school entry, as prior research has found, but that effects will be stronger for lower-SES children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, the study compares the age 4 outcomes of twins discordant for birth weight (N~1,400). Twin fixed-effects models are run on the full twin sample and separately for low-and high-SES children. Results support the study's hypotheses, suggesting that socioeconomic risk accentuates the effects of birth weight on early development.

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Ramadan during pregnancy and neonatal health—Fasting, dietary composition and sleep patterns

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Reconsidering the failure model: Using a genetically controlled design to assess the spread of problems from reactive aggression to internalizing symptoms through peer rejection across the primary school years

“…Supplemental analyses were conducted with variables known to correlate with the predictor, outcome, and mediator variables, to isolate effects to the constructs of interest and to rule out the possibility that third variables were responsible for the associations. Birthweight , obtained from birth records, was included as a control variable in the supplemental analyses because it indexes differences during the intra‐uterine period and children with lower birthweight tend to display more behavioral disturbances (Hines et al, 2020). Kindergarten teachers rated conflict (“This child and I always seem to be struggling with each other”) and closeness (“I share an affectionate, warm relationship with this child”) on separate two‐item measures from the Teacher‐Child Relationships Scale (Pianta et al, 1995).…”