Biomedical and Social-Environmental Influences on Cognitive and Verbal Abilities in Children 1 to 3 Years of Age

Abstract

The study had two purposes. The first was to study the effects of biomedical and environmental conditions on cognitive and language development in a longitudinal sample of 96 children studied from birth to three years of age. The sample was characterised by mostly healthy, full-term infants, with few preterm and very low birthweight infants. It was hypothesised that biomedical factors would be more strongly related to cognitive and language development in the first two years and that environmental factors would more strongly influence outcomes at age three years. The second purpose of this study was to use an analysis approach that permits the estimation of variables assumed to underlie the measurement data. This approach was compared with the results of more traditional analyses (e.g. correlation and regression analyses). The results supported the hypothesis, and also supported the results of some other research utilising subject samples which were characterised by more severe perinatal and neonatal complications than characterised the sample of the present study.