Neurobehavioral effects of prenatal alcohol: Part I. Research strategy

Abstract

This paper, Part I of a three-part series, reviews the literature on the neurobehavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and describes a large group of tests assembled to assess neurobehavioral outcomes of alcohol teratogenesis in 7-year-old children. This paper presents the distribution of these test scores for our sample and discusses their relationships with an alcohol binge score and with full-scale IQ. This group of tests is suitable for children with a wide range of abilities and provides a broad assessment of neurobehavioral deficits. Part II of this series describes a new method of statistical analysis, Partial Least Squares (PLS), which is particularly well suited to complex multivariate data sets such as these, and with its aid, examines the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on IQ, achievement, vigilance and classroom behavior, a total of 43 outcome scores. Part III examines prenatal alcohol effects on outcomes from the broad group of 164 scores deriving from 17 neuropsychologic tests, using the Partial Least Squares methodology, and summarizes the implications of our findings for the behavioral teratology of alcohol.