Differences on Bayley's Infant Behavior Record for a Sample of High-Risk Infants and Their Controls

• Published in: Child development 1983-10, Vol.54 (5), p.1211-1216
• Main Authors: Lasky, Robert E., Tyson, Jon E., Rosenfeld, Charles R., Priest, Melody, Krasinski, Debra, Heartwell, Stephen, Gant, Norman F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Artificial respiration; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Risk; Birth weight; Child development; Developmental psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gestational age; Happiness; Health sciences; Humans; Infant, Low Birth Weight - psychology; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Newborn, Diseases - psychology; Infants; Male; Motor Activity; Motor Skills; Newborns; Pediatrics; Principal components analysis; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Respiration, Artificial; Risk; Ventilators
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.2307/1129676

3 groups of high-risk newborns and their controls were assessed at 92 weeks post-conceptional age using Bayley's Infant Behavioral Record (IBR). The 3 groups of high-risk infants were those who weighed 1,500 grams or less at birth and required no ventilator therapy, those weighing 1,500 grams or less at birth who required ventilator therapy, and newborns weighing more than 1,500 grams at birth who required ventilator therapy. Controls were healthy term infants matched for 7 socioeconomic and demographic variables. The first principal component of the IBR ratings for the 3 groups of high-risk infants and the controls were similar. All 3 groups of high-risk infants received less desirable IBR ratings on most items than their controls. In addition, there were some differences among high-risk groups; ventilated infants regardless of birth weight received the lowest ratings reflecting overall performance on the IBR, very low birth-weight, ventilated newborns were more likely to receive ratings characterizing an overly active infant with a short attention span, and very low birth-weight, never-ventilated infants were most likely to be rated as happy but passive and delayed. The differences between the high-risk infants and controls in large part resulted from infants who were also delayed in terms of their mental and motor development.