Prenatal Cocaine Exposure and Infant Performance on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale

Abstract

Drug-exposed infants did not differ from nonexposed infants on Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) clusters or on birth characteristics. Infants (n = 137) born to three groups of low-income mothers--cocaine and poly-drug-using mothers in a drug user treatment group (n = 76) and in a treatment rejecter group (n = 18), and to a nonuser group (n = 43)--were examined at 2 days and 2-4 weeks. The motor cluster improved and regulation of state worsened from time 1 to 2. There were no interactions of group by time. Regression analyses were conducted to see whether group differences might either emerge or disappear after removing effects of competing variables, but they did not. Power analysis showed that sample size was sufficient to have detected group differences.