BEHAVIOR OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN FROM DRUG-USING FAMILIES

毒瘾在美国女性中是一个日益严重的问题， 尤其是育龄妇女。人们普遍认为 吸毒母亲所生的孩子患癌症的风险很高 儿童时期和后来的药物滥用的各种问题，但 对这些儿童的行为特征知之甚少 或者他们所生活的家庭环境的类型。 拟议的研究将提供广泛的措施，以 大约40名低收入黑人9岁儿童的样本 在产前接触过美沙酮，并继续生活在 有亲生母亲的家庭。他们将被对比 和一群母亲从未使用过阿片类药物的孩子。 这两组孩子都是在他们的母亲 怀孕。孩子们将通过各种工具进行评估。 旨在测量一般精神疾病和智力 以及注意力、运动协调等方面的问题， 和品行障碍。仪器将包括以下组合 临床访谈，向家长和教师发放问卷，以及 对儿童的直接测试。另一套工具将评估 可能影响家庭环境的优势和劣势 儿童发展，包括产妇适应功能，药物 使用、生育态度、情感风格、参与 儿童和儿童的控制；家庭结构、压力和 支持；以及兄弟姐妹行为。 因为拟议的样本在 儿童出生的头两年，可以分析数据来看 早期儿童行为模式，早期母亲行为模式，以及 预测学龄期结局的早期儿童健康状况。 随着时间的推移，这些关于儿童和家庭发展的信息将是 有助于为后代规划预防性干预计划 从婴儿期和蹒跚学步的时候就开始吸毒的女性。

Drug addiction is a growing problem among American women, particularly women of childbearing age. 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 will provide a broad range of measures on a sample of approximately 40 low-income black 9-year-old children who were exposed prenatally to methadone and who continue to live in families with their biological mothers. They will be contrasted with a group of children whose mothers never used opioid drugs. Both groups of children were recruited during their mothers' pregnancies. Children will be assessed on a variety of instruments designed to measure general psychiatric and intellectual functioning as well as problems in attention, motor coordination, and conduct disorders. Instruments will include a combination of clinical interviews, questionnaires to parents and teachers, and direct tests of children. Another set of instruments will assess strengths and weaknesses of family environment that might affect child development, including maternal adaptive functioning, drug use, childbearing attitudes, affective style, involvement with child, and control of child; family structures, stresses and supports; and sibling behavior. Because the proposed sample was studied extensively during the children's first two years of life, data can be analyzed to look at patterns of early child behavior, early mother behavior, and early child medical conditions that predict school-age outcome. Such information on child and family development over time will be useful in planning preventive intervention programs for offspring of drug-addicted women that begin during infancy and toddlerhood.