This is a prospective study of the effects of alcohol use during pregnancy. Women were selected from the entire spectrum of drinking practices and interviewed in their fourth and seventh months of pregnancy. Mothers and offspring were assessed at delivery and at 8, 18 and 36 months. Physical and mental development, morphological anomalies, behavioral and neurological characteristics, alcohol use, drug use, environmental factors and psychological traits of the mother were assessed at each phase. Analyses of the data from this cohort have demonstrated a relationship between prenatal maternal alcohol use and growth and morphologic abnormalities in the offspring. Low birthweight, decreased head circumference and length and an increased rate of fetal alcohol effects were all found to be significantly correlated with exposure to alcohol during the first two months of the first trimester. These effects continued to be detectable at each of the follow-up assessments. Effects of prenatal alcohol use were found on the motor development of the child at 8 months. Tentative findings at 3 years of age indicate that there are cognitive, behavioral and motor effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. We anticipate that additional effects of prenatal alcohol exposure will appear at later ages as more complex demands are made on the children for mastery of increasingly difficult levels of cognitive tasks and motor skills. This is a proposal to assess the children at two additional time points, ages 6 and 8. At each time point, in addition to our ongoing measurement of growth and morphological anomalies, we will continue to assess: (1) intelligence (2) achievement (3) behavior (4) motor skills, and (5) neuropsychological performance.
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