ADOLESCENTS FROM DRUG-USING FAMILIES

虽然公众非常关注产前暴露的影响， 非法药物可能对儿童的发展，很少有研究 对有记录的接触史的儿童进行了第一次跟踪 几个月的生活。 人们普遍认为， 母亲在儿童时期面临各种问题的高风险， 对于后来的药物滥用，但很少有人知道行为 这些儿童的特点或家庭环境的类型， 他们生活的地方。 拟议的研究涉及37个城市样本的评估 14岁的非洲裔美国儿童在产前暴露于 阿片类药物 他们将与人口统计学上类似的 一组41名儿童，他们的母亲没有阿片类药物使用史， 他们怀孕的时间。 对这些儿童的先前评估， 10岁的儿童，特别是阿片类药物， 暴露的男孩-显示出注意力缺陷的迹象， 持续注意力的计算机化任务，尽管事实上， 他们与样本中的其他孩子在他们的 一般智力功能。 在拟议的青少年后续行动中， 儿童将被给予更广泛的临床电池， 注意力的神经心理学评估，以进一步阐明 阿片类药物暴露儿童的注意力问题。 此外，随着儿童进入特别高的年龄段， 吸毒、性活动和犯罪行为的风险，各种 将对心理社会功能进行评估。 还将评估儿童的社会环境， 与家庭成员的关系，以确定哪些因素有助于 发育风险和弹性在这个样本中处于非常高的风险。 等 关于儿童和家庭长期发展的资料将有助于 规划吸毒子女预防干预方案 妇女和其他高风险城市儿童。

While there is great public concern about the effects prenatal exposure to illicit drugs may have on the development of children, few studies have followed children with documented exposure histories past the first months of life. It is widely assumed that children born to drug-addicted mothers are at high risk for a variety of problems during childhood and for later drug abuse, but little is known about behavioral characteristics of these children or the types of family environments in which they live. The proposed research involves assessment of a sample of 37 urban African-American 14-year-old children who were exposed prenatally to opioid drugs. They will be contrasted with a demographically similar group of 41 children whose mothers had no history of opioid drug use at the time of their pregnancies. Previous assessments of these children at age 10 suggested that opioid-exposed children -- particularly opioid exposed boys -- showed signs of attention deficit as measured on computerized tasks of sustained attention, despite that the fact that they did not differ from other children in the sample in terms of their general intellectual functioning. In the proposed adolescent follow-up, children will be administered a more extensive battery of clinical neuropsychological assessments of attention to further clarify the nature of the attention problems present in the opioid-exposed children. Additionally, as the children enter the age period of particularly high risk for drug use, sexual activity, and delinquent behavior, a variety of assessments of psychosocial functioning will be administered. Assessments will also be made of the children's social environments and relationships with family members to determine what factors contribute to developmental risk and resiliency in this sample at very high risk. Such information on child and family development over time will be useful in planning preventive intervention programs for offspring of drug-addicted women and other high-risk urban children.