Influences On Human Development

INFLUENCES ON HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Longitudinal Research in the
Behavioral, Social, and Medical
Sciences
An International Series
EDITOR
Sarnoff A. Mednick
University of Southern California and Psykologisk
Institut, Copenhagen
Other Titles in the Series:
Schulsinger, F, Mednick, SA, Knop J.;

Longitudinal Research: Methods and Uses in
Behavioral Science
Van Dusen, K.T., Mednick, SA; Prospective

Studies of Crime and Delinquency
Goodwin, D., Van Dusen, K.T., Mednick, SA;

Longitudinal Research in Alcoholism
Influences on Human Development
A Longitudinal Perspective
Robert L. Baker
Birgitte R. Mednick
University of Southern California
Research Team Collaborators

Dennis Hocevar, University of Southern California
Charlotte Reznick, University of Southern California
William Brock, The Consulting Group, Inc., San Diego
Linn Carothers, University of Southern California
Thomas W. Teasdale, University of Lund, Sweden
Nancy Hunt, California State University, Los Angeles
Joyce Jennings, University of Southern California
"
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Baker, Robert L. (Robert Lee), 1927-
Influenoes on human development.
(Longitudi~al research in the behavioral, social, and medical sciences)

Bibliography: p. 167
1. Developmental psychology. 2. Man - Influenoe of environment.
I. Mednick, Birgitte R. II. Title. III. Series.
BF713.B33 1984 155 84--895
ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8988-3 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-5642-1
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-5642-1
Copyright © 1984 by Kluwer • Nijhoff Publishing. No part of this book

may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means without written permission of the publisher.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984
IV
Contents
List of Tables vii

List of Figures ix
Preface xi
Pregnancy and the First Year
1
Description of the Cohort, Variables, and General Procedures 3
2
Influences on Perinatal Outcomes
(Written in collaboration with Dennis Hocevar and Thomas Teasdale) 17
3
Perinatal and Social Influences on One-Year Physical Outcomes
(Written in collaboration with Dennis Hocevar and Thomas Teasdale) 31
II
Follow-up of the Cohort into Adolescence and Young Adulthood
4
The Follow-Up: Sample, Variables, and Procedures 45
5
Divorce and Family Instability
(Written in collaboration with Charlotte Reznick) 59
6
Maternal Employment and Child Day Care
(Written in collaboration with William Brock) 81
v
vi CONTENTS
7
Family Size and Birth Order
(Written in collaboration with Dennis Hocevar) 101
8
Correlates of Adolescent and Young Adult Criminal Behavior
(Written in collaboration with Linn Carothers) 117
9
long-Term Consequences for Adolescents Identified as At-Risk at Birth 143
Epilogue
Implications for Intervention and Social Policy Development 161
References 167
Author Index 181
Subject Index 185
List of Tables
1-1 Age of Mother at Birth of Index Child in Two Samples 8

1-2 Variables in Analyses of One-Year Infant Outcomes for the Danish 9
Perinatal Sample
1-3 Examples of the Coding System Used in Calculating Medical 12
Composite Scores
2-1 Regression Analysis Results: Neonatal Outcomes 24

2-2 Mean Medical Scores and F-Values Reflecting Socioeconomic 27
Differences in Infant Health Status
3-1 Regression Results: One-Year Outcomes 34
3-2 Mean Medical Scores and F-Values Reflecting Socioeconomic 37
Differences in One-Year Health Status
3-3 Relationship between First-Year Physical Health of Infants Born to 40
Teenage Mothers and Home Environment
4-1 Comparison of Interview Refusal Group with Final Interviewed 49
Sample on Selected Variables
4-2 Comparison of the Teacher Rating Group and the Total Sample on 51
Selected Variables
5-1 Percentage of Subjects by Outcome Status and Family Intactness 69
6-1 Distribution of Maternal Work Patterns 83
6-2 Analyses of Selected Family Variables by Mother's Employment 86
Patterns
6-3 Analyses of the Association of Work Patterns with Adolescent 88
Outcomes
6-4 Analyses of Adolescent Outcomes by Maternal Employment 90
Instability
vii
viii LIST OF TABLES
6-5 Number of Children in Each Type of Day Care by Age 91

6-6 Discriminant Function Analyses Predicting Toward Psychosocial 95
Outcomes in Adolescence
6-7 Discriminant Function Analyses Predicting Toward Academic 96
7-1 Means and Standard Deviations of Physical Measures and Teacher 108
Ratings Broken Down by Sex
7-2 Intercorrelations of Physical Measures, SES, and Adolescent 109
Outcomes with Sex Partialed
7-3 Cell Means for Physical and School Problems Measures by Family 110
Size
7-4 A Priori Contrasts for Youngest and Oldest Children in Two-Child 111
Families
7-5 ANCOVAS for Youngest, Middle, and Oldest Siblings in Families 112
with Three or More Children
8-1 Criminal Offenses by Category and Severity 119
8-2 Cell Numbers for Each Pattern of Criminality Recorded 120
9-1 Means and Standard Deviations for Low and Normal Birth Weight 146
Groups on Academic and Psychosocial Outcomes
9-2 Means and Standard Deviations for Familial and Maternal 157
Characteristics by Mother's Age at Birth of First Child
9-3 Summary of Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis for Academic 158
Performance
9-4 Summary of Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis for Aggressivity 159
List of Figures
1-1 Socioeconomic Status: A Comparison of the American 7

Collaborative and Danish Perinatal Samples with the U.S. White
Population
5-1 Percentage of High and Low Aggression by SES and Family 70
Intactness
5-2 Percentage of High and Low Aggression by Mother's Education 71
and Family Intactness
5-3 Percentage of High Withdrawal by SES and Family Intactness 72

5-4 Percentage of High Withdrawal by Mother's Education and Family 72
Intactness
5-5 Percentage with Reading Problems by Sex and Family Intactness 73
5-6 Percentage with Reading and Math Problems by Mother's 74
Education and Family Intactness
5-7 Percentage with High and Low Reading Proficiency by Mother's 75
Contentment and Family Intactness
5-8 Percentage with High and Low Math Skills by Sex and Family 75
Intactness
5-9 Percentage with High and Low Math Skills by SES and Family 76
Intactness
5-10 Percentage with High and Low Math Skills by Mother's 77
8-1 Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Thievery Offenses by 130
Father Crime Status and SES
8-2 Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Violence Offenses by 131
Father Crime Status and SES
ix
x LIST OF FIGURES
8-3 Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Uncontrolled Behavior 132

Offenses by Father Crime Status and SES
Mother Crime Status and SES
Father Crime Status and Father Presence in Home
Father Crime and Mother Crime Status
9-1 Percentage with Severe Reading Problems by Infant Medical Risk 151
9-2 Percentage with Math Problems by Infant Medical Risk and Family 152
Intactness
9-3 Percentage with High Aggression by Infant Medical Risk and 152
Family Intactness
9-4 Percentage with High Withdrawal by Infant Medical Risk and 153
Family Intactness
9-5 Percentage with High Impulsivity by Infant Medical Risk and 154
Family Intactness
Preface
This book is the product of the efforts of a number of people dating back to 1956,
when Professor T. Kemp, then head of the University Institute for Human Genetics
in Copenhagen, proposed a study on the importance of x-ray irradiation in pregnant
women. Under the guidance of Professors Dyhre Trolle and Preben Plum of the Uni-
versity Hospital in Copenhagen, the investigation was expanded to deal with prenatal
and perinatal factors of importance for the development of the infant.
The corpus of medical data that resulted from these efforts was collected and
organized by Drs. Bengt Zachau-Christiansen and Aage Villumsen. The project's
birth cohort included all deliveries that took place at the State University Hospital,
Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, over a two-year period from 1959 to 1961. As part of
the perinatal study, the mothers and children were subjected to regular and thorough
medical examinations during pregnancy and through the first year of the child's life.
The detailed data from these examinations, as well as information about treatment
administered, were systematically collected and coded.
The potential importance of the data base for use by social scientists did not go
unnoticed. Birgitte Mednick and Brian Sutton-Smith, then of Columbia University,
conceived an idea to use the Danish perinatal data base and birth cohort as the foun-
dation for conducting a longitudinal study of the long-term consequences of a set of
environmental and early health variables for mothers and children. In response to a
preliminary request, Dr. Zachau-Christiansen graciously consented to make the en-
tire set of Danish Perinatal Project files available for such inquiry. This, then, consti-
tutes the historical background for the longitudinal study described in this book.
Our overall inquiry made use of the Danish Longitudinal Perinatal Study and is
described in this book as two separate but related sets of analyses. Part I, Pregnancy
and the First Year, consists of analyses of the relationships between the health vari-
ables at the neonatal and the one-year levels and the family structure, maternal state,
and selected social variables in the total perinatal sample of 9,125 mother-child pairs.
Xl
XlI PREFACE
Part IT, Follow-up of the Cohort into Adolescence and Young Adulthood, de-
scribes a follow-up of a 10 percent sample of mother-child pairs from the total co-
hort. The focus of these analyses is on the long-term (18 to 21 years) consequences
for the child of the same set of family structure and social variables introduced in
part I. Specifically, the purpose is to view these variables in interaction with neonatal
and infant medical variables, as well as with other environmental variables that may
influence children during the formative years.
The authors and collaborators are indebted to many people who made direct and
indirect contributions to the successful completion of the project. However, without
the support of the following people, the objectives would not have been attained:
Dr. Bengt Zachau-Christiansen, director of the Danish Perinatal Project, Rigshos-

pitalet, for making the data files used in this project available to us.
Drs. Sarnoff A. Mednick and Fini Schulsinger, directors of Psykologisk Institut,

Copenhagen.
Fritze Lind and Dr. Joav Merrick, afsnit for prospective paedeatri, Rigshospitalet,
for their assistance in data organization.
Gitte Skat Andersen, Psykologisk Institut, Copenhagen, who served as head so-
cial worker during the entire project and was directly involved in the development
of instrumentation as well as the coordination of quality control for the data
collection.
Ida Bech and Inger Buchter, Psykologisk Institut, Copenhagen, for their assis-
tance in data collection.
Dr. Brian Sutton-Smith, University of Pennsylvania, for his contributions to the
work reported in part I of this book.
Mary Sears and Frances Fitzgerald, University of Southern California, for their
editorial assistance throughout the preparation of the book.
The original longitudinal follow-up study was funded by the National Institute for
Child Health and Development, U.S. National Institutes of Health. Funding was
provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, for the
analyses of adolescent and young adult criminal behavior. In addition, fmancial sup-
port for the completion of this book was provided by the University of Southern
California Faculty Research and Innovation Fund and an EDUCARE Research Grant
from the School of Education, University of Southern California.
Los Angeles, California R.L.B.

December 1983 B.R.M.
INFLUENCES ON HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
I PREGNANCY AND THE FIRST
YEAR
The inquiries described in part I make use of the data of the Danish Longitu-
dinal Perinatal Study and involve analyses of the relationships between and
among infant health variables at the neonatal and the one-year levels and
family structure, maternal state, and selected social variables for the total
perinatal sample of 9,125 births. The specific topics treated in part I have a
longitudinal perspective that might be characterized as "diachronous," as op-
posed to synchronous [Janson 1981], in that we have attempted to (I) deter-
mine the associations among medical variables over three successive stages
of the infants' lives covering a 21-month time frame - during pregnancy,
the neonatal period, and at the end of the first year; and (2) clarify the emer-
gence of social and familial variables as interactive influences on medical
outcomes during the 21-month period.
Part I is organized as follows:
Chapter 1. Description of the Cohort, Variables, and General Procedures.

Chapter 2. Influences on Perinatal Outcomes.
Chapter 3. Perinatal and Social Influences on One-Year Outcomes.
2 PREGNANCY AND THE FIRST YEAR
Contents of chapters 2 and 3 are adaptations and expansions of a report

that appeared in Developmental Psychology, 1983, vol. 19, no. 5, 752-765,
entitled "Effects of Social, Familial, and Maternal State Variables on Neo-
natal and Infant Health."
The inquiry that formed the basis of Part I of this book was supported by
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the U.S.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Grant Award Number 75-7-
060, "The Consequences of Family Structure and Maternal State for Child
and Mother's Development."
1 DESCRIPTION OF THE COHORT,
VARIABLES, AND GENERAL
PROCEDURES
Suitability of the Danish Cohort for Our Use
The original Danish Perinatal Study, conducted during 1959 to 1962, provided us
with an excellent set of data files well suited as a foundation for conducting both
secondary analyses and additional prospective multidisciplinary inquiry. The peri-
natal study, originally designed to describe the risks to human reproduction from
increasing background radiation, had a health focus with an exclusive emphasis on
medical and biological variables [Zachau-Christiansen & Ross 1975]. However, the
nature of the cohort and the broad scope of uniform and standard state-of-the-medi-
cal-arts measures at that time made it possible to consider additional analyses with
diverse foci involving medical, familial, and environmental measures collected on
the birth cohort during the fIrst year of the index child's life. The uniform conditions
under which the initial data items were defmed, organized, and collected constituted
a major methodological strength, one that permitted in-depth evaluations of mUltiple
variable relationships and a clearer understanding of the underlying associations.
This study is in contrast with meritorious, but nonetheless for our purposes flawed,
census-type studies in which data are collected by varied professionals in diverse
locations possessing unspecifIed or unrecorded conditions, and subsequently aggre-
gated for the purpose of providing broad descriptions of women and their pregnan-
cies. Clearly, the nonuniform observation and data collection procedures would
introduce an important methodological disadvantage in such studies.
3
A second methodological advantage of using the Danish Perinatal Study for our
purposes is that it constituted a large sample of prospective mothers who possessed
widely diverse social and familial characteristics, but who were in effect placed un-
der controlled conditions by the investigators during the pregnancy and neonatal pe-
riods. A major objective of the original Danish Perinatal Study was not only to
clarify the relationships between and among medical variables, but to carefully de-
scribe the progress of each pregnancy under controlled conditions in which pre- and
postnatal medical care was provided and systematic enroute clinical interventions
were made. Thoroughly documented medical care was prescribed and provided by
the investigators throughout the pregnancy and the neonatal periods. The mandated
access to quality medical care thus reduced to near zero the variability that would
otherwise have been associated with this critical variable. The importance of this
condition is discussed further in later chapters. From our view the uniform clinical
measures, coupled with the provision of high-quality medical care during pregnancy,
provided the strongest foundation to support secondary analyses and prospective fol-
low-up inquiry.
General Procedures Used
The subjects consisted of the total birth cohort included in the Danish Prospective
Longitudinal Perinatal Study. The project was begun in 1959 at the maternity depart-
ment of the State University Hospital (Rigshospitalet) in Copenhagen. * All deliver-
ies (over 20-weeks gestation) that took place in this hospital between September
1959 and December 1961 were included in the study. A set of tightly controlled data
collection procedures was employed by the original project collaborators [Zachau-
Christiansen & Ross 1975].
The pregnant women were contacted and examined before delivery as early as
possible in pregnancy and during attendance at the hospital's antenatal clinic. To
evaluate and code the social, general medical, and obstetric histories of the women
uniformly, the same physician conducted all prenatal examinations. In addition to an
obstetrician, midwives and midwife trainees were present in the delivery room and
assisted in collecting the data describing the deliveries and the status of the neonates
and mothers immediately after birth. In those cases where the general conditions
*The Danish Perinatal Study was carried out under the guidance of Professors P. Plum and D.
Trolle. In addition. Professors E. Rydberg, E. Brandstrup, and F. Fuchs gave expertise and support in
the planning phase as well as during the data collection phase. Professor B. Zachau-Christiansen and
A. Villumsen, M.D., served as project directors and also carried out the medical examinations of the
pregnant women and their infants.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COHORT, VARIABLES, AND GENERAL PROCEDURES 5
permitted, one of three pediatricians again examined the live-born infants on the first
and fifth day after delivery, The flrst- and the fifth-day examinations included a
physical examination and a thorough neurological assessment of the infant. Upon
discharge from the hospital, the mothers (or guardians) of the infants received a self-
administered questionnaire related to the infant's developmental progress during the
first year of life, Records of immunization and information concerning intercurrent
diseases, admission to hospitals and other institutions, and participation in the free
national infant health examination were also obtained.
When the children reached their first birthday, the mothers were asked to bring
them to the pediatric outpatient department of the State University Hospital for a
special developmental examination. A team of three pediatricians conducted the fol-
low-up examinations. Maximum effort was made to include all surviving infants in
the one-year follow-up. If parents were unable to bring the child to the hospital,
home visits were arranged. The number of people carrying out the data collection
was restricted to an absolute minimum in order to facilitate close cooperation and
continuity of quality control. The one-year examination included a full neurological
assessment, an evaluation of the motor developmental level, and an evaluation of the
physical health status at the time ofthe examination. A team of Danish and American
obstetricians and pediatricians, representing both clinical and research expertise, de-
signed the protocols.
Representativeness of the Danish Sample
Comparability with the Danish Population
The Danish perinatal sample is not a representative sample of pregnant Danish

women. The differences between this sample and the general Danish population of
prospective mothers are related to the medical risk of the subjects, their social back-
ground, and the medical treatment to which they were exposed.
Medical Risks. The Danish perinatal sample contains a higher than normal rate of
problem pregnancies and deliveries. The State University Hospital, Rigshospitalet,
is a unit of the University of Copenhagen and is also the country's largest center for
medical research and progressive treatment of patients. Not surprisingly, therefore, a
larger percentage of difficult births are referred to this hospital. During the 1959-
1961 period, the hospital system of Denmark was still so centralized that women
from all the eastern parts of the country who were suffering grave complications in
pregnancy or who were expected to present difficult deliveries would likely be re-
ferred to Rigshospitalet's obstetric department. As an example of the elevated com-
plication rate, the incidence of low birth weight (2,500 grams or less) was over 18
percent in the Danish perinatal sample, or about three times the incidence found in
the general Danish population during the years in question.
Social Background. Women in the Danish perinatal sample experienced a higher

rate of unwed motherhood and a lower average SES than representative samples of
Danish pregnant women. The reason is probably because Rigshospitalet is located in
the center of the city and therefore draws a sizable proportion of the patient group
(those not referred because of complications) from the poorer inner-city areas. Tra-
ditionally, moreover, during those years unwed mothers from Copenhagen tended to
give birth at Rigshospitalet.
Medical Treatment. The quality of treatment received by pregnant women in the

general population is known to vary as a function of such variables as SES, age of
mother, area of residence, degree of wantedness of pregnancy, and so on [Chamber-
lain, Chamberlain, Howlett, & Claireaux 1975; Kessner, Singer, Kalk & Schlesinger
1973; Pharoah 1976]. However, these factors did not influence the quality of treat-
ment to which the subjects of the Danish perinatal sample had access. Irrespective of
social or personal background, prospective mothers received early and thorough pre-
natal care. During delivery, as well as during the postnatal period, all patients in the
study sample were attended by highly trained medical personnel using the most ad-
vanced equipment available for the treatment of both mother and infant.
Comparability with Other Birth Cohorts
Although the described characteristics render the Danish perinatal sample inappro-
priate for the calculation of incidence rates generalizable to the total Danish popula-
tion, the data from the sample present unusual opportunities for analyses of
relationships between pre- and perinatal conditions and later outcomes in well-de-
fmed subject groups, that is, groups defmed in terms of social as well as medical
variables. The white subsample of the American Collaborative Project constitutes an
analogous American sample since it presents higher incidences of young, low SES
women and women at higher degrees of medical risk in comparison to representative
U.S. samples [Niswander & Gordon 1972]. Figure 1-1 and table 1-1 illustrate the
similarity of the two samples in regard to SES and maternal age distribution. If not
for the different SES procedures used at the low end of the scale, the SES distribu-
tions for both samples appear to be quite similar. Clearly, the maternal age distribu-
tions are comparable.
U.S. and Danish
35 Population Median
30
,/ ,
".
Danish Perinatal :' \,
Sample ./ \,
25
,,'
,,
t:
.,
",,,
f2 20 ...
~
---- -\::--.. . .
~--~'.!-----.
15 / "
American Collaborative ;.)(....../
"\.1 .....
Perinatal Sample / -- '.,
10
5
----/...- --... ... .•..""::':::::::.'-.0-0
~ ' ..
0·9 10·19 20·29 30·39 40·49 50·59 60·69 70·79 80·89 90·95 USCB (1963)
Codes
----0 2
I
3 4 5 6 7 Danish SES
I Codes (1959)
Low Middle High
Socioeconomic Indices
Figure 1-1. Socioeconomic Status: A Comparison of the American Collaborative

and Danish Perinatal Samples with the U.S. White Population [From Broman,
Nichols, & Kennedy 1975, p, 23, Mednick, Baker, & Sutton-Smith 19791
Table 1-1. Age of Mother at Birth of Index Child in Two Samples
% in % in
Mother's Age at Birth o.llndex Danish Perinatal American Collaborative
14 .10 .40
15-19 20.50 17.40
20-24 30.90 39.20
25-29 22.00 23.00
30-34 14.40 12.10
35-39 8.60 6.30
40+ 3.00 1.80
Source: Broman. Nichols. and Kennedy [1975. p. 26].
Although the Kauai birth cohort of 1954 [Werner, Bierman, & French 1971] had
a lower incidence of high-risk pregnancies and a greater ethnic mix from Eastern
cultures, it is also comparable to the Danish and American cohorts. The three studies
are similar in the following ways:
I . Each identified their samples early in the pregnancy.

2. Each was prospective in terms of the data items and observations made over
the duration of the studies.
3. Each medical research team systematically administered prespecified and
uniform medical assessments over the course of the pregnancies and through
at least the first year of the infant's life.
4. Each provided enroute controlled and documented access to quality medical
care generally as well as special treatment suggested by the enroute medical
assessments.
In contrast, the Danish cohort is not comparable to the British Births 1970 Study
[Chamberlain et al. 1975]. The British study involved a representative sample of
17,000 births that occurred during a seven-day period in the United Kingdom.
Whereas the Danish and American collaborative samples were selected and pos-
sessed definable characteristics, the British sample was representative of the total
population. Whereas the Danish, American, and Kauai studies combined uniform
clinical medical assessments with controlled access to prescribed medical care, the
British study was conducted as a national medical survey using a standard medical
questionnaire for completion by a variety of medical personnel in many locations.
Therefore, medical treatment was not uniformly provided. Thus, the Danish, Amer-
ican, and Kauaian studies focused on the identification of associations between an-
tecedent events and the outcomes of pregnancy in defmable populations, whereas the
British study focused on accurate specifications of incidence rates applicable to the
total population of the United Kingdom.
The Variables and Their Context
Table 1-2 presents the variables included in the analyses described in chapters 2 and
3. Note that they are assigned to one of three categories: antecedent, mediating, and
outcome variables. The categories were defmed on the basis of what appeared to be
the most likely temporal sequence of the variables' impact on the mother-child pair
over the first year of the infant's life. The antecedent variables category includes
social and family structure data, as well as descriptions of the mother's health during
pregnancy. Previous reproductive history and pregnancy and delivery complications
are also included in this category. The relationships of the antecedent variables with
I-year infant outcome variables are seen as being mediated by both sociological and
physiological variables. The one-year outcome variables include three summary
Table 1-2. Variables in Analyses of One-Year Infant Outcomes for the Danish
Perinatal Sample'
Antecedent Variables Mediating Variables Outcome Variables
Social Data on Family Sociological Factors Physiological Status

Mother's marital status SES of family at child's One-year physical health
Mother's age at ftrst birth one-year birthday One-year motor
Mother's age at birth of index Mother's work status development
Number of older siblings Child's exposure to day
Spacing to older siblings care
Child Planned Medical Factors

Birth weight
Medical Factors Multiple birth
Outcomes of previous pregnancies Neonatal physical status
Mother's prepregnancy health Neonatal neurological
Pregnancy complications status
Delivery complications
*These constitute the variables actually included in the analyses subsequent to data-item
reduction.
scores describing physical, neurological, and motor development status of the 1-

year-old.
Data Items and Their Sources
All data that comprised the bases for the part I inquiry came from two sources: the
Danish Perinatal Study files and the National Population Register of Denmark (Folk-
eregisteret). All medical and some antecedent social variables were derived from the
Perinatal Study files; the remaining sociological factors describing the home environ-
ment during the first year were taken from the Folkeregisteret. Together, the two
sources served to help us determine both the direct and indirect associations of an
array of social and medical variables on the outcomes of pregnancy and early infant
development. Since the Folkeregisteret is an important source in part I, and is even
more critical to the follow-up inquiries described in subsequent chapters, it deserves
a brief description.
The Folkeregisteret is a population register maintained by every community in
Denmark. Established by law in 1924, it provides the address and makeup of the
household of each individual (the name of the people living at the same address)
from birth to death or immigration. Each person is identified by name and birth date.
By means of these registers throughout the country, an individual can be traced
through all changes of address and changes in marital status and information about
parents, children, and siblings can be derived. Since there are penalties for failing to
report each change of address, these records are remarkably complete.
Reduction of Medical Data Items into Composite Scores
The protocols developed in the original perinatal study for the collection of obstetric
and pediatric information did not involve administration of standard assessment in-
struments. It should be remembered that in 1959 the availability of such measures
was quite limited [St. Clair 1978]. Rather, the contemporary format of a comprehen-
sive clinical examination determined the criterion for inclusion of an individual item.
For the purposes of our inquiry, the many hundreds of individual data items from
the subjects' medical protocols were summarized into sets of composite scores.
These scores are labeled as follows:
Pregnancy complications
Delivery complications
Neonatal neurological status

Neonatal physical status
One-year physical status
One-year motor development status
The principles governing the organization of the data items into summary scores
were developed through the collaboration of American and Danish obstetricians and
pediatric neurologists, Factor or cluster analysis techniques for deriving scales were
discarded in favor of a logical and clinical approach. This was due to the highly
skewed distribution on most of the items; as one would expect, only a small group
of subjects showed any sign of a given type of anomaly or complication. The scoring
system developed assigned a weight of 0 to 5 to each data item according to the
judged severity of the complication or deviance. Due to space limitations the com-
plete sets of data items and assigned weights relevant to each composite score cannot
be presented here. However, to provide the reader with an idea of the nature of the
weighting system, table 1-3 presents examples of the kinds of complications that
received each severity rating for each of the composite scores. In calculating the
scores for individual subjects, the weights assigned to all items relevant to a given
composite score were summed, yielding a cumulative score for that area.
A moderate or high summed weighted score resulting from a subject's record of
numerous minor complications or one or two serious complications is numerically
possible. Therefore, the correlation between the subject's summed weighted scores
and the highest weight assigned to any of their complications (the highest severity
score) in each area was computed. For the dependent variables the median correla-
tion was .83, indicating that the summed weighted score is an indicator of the pres-
ence of severe complications rather than the cumulative effect of minor problems.
The usefulness of organizing complications into sets and thinking in terms of the
cumulative effects of such a series of complications, as opposed to considering each
complication individually, has been convincingly demonstrated by previous work in
the area [Parmelee & Michaelis 1971; Parmelee, Kopp, & Sigman 1976]. Earlier
published reports describing different aspects of the previous research done on the
Danish perinatal sample [B. Mednick 1977; B. Mednick, Hocevar, Baker, & Teas-
dale 1983; S. Mednick, Mura, Schulsinger, & B. Mednick 1971] have employed the
scoring system used in our study. Other variables not included in the composite
scores were also derived from the medical protocols. These were child's sex, moth-
er's age at birth, months since a prior birth, prior pregnancy complications, prior
illness, birth weight, number of older siblings, number of pregnancies, whether child
planned, and marital status of parents.
Table 1-3. Examples of the Coding System Used in Calculating Medical Composite
Scores
Severity
Name of Scale Weights Examples of Weighted Items
Pregnancy complications Bacterial infection; anemia

2 Bleeding; edema; chemotherapy
3 X-ray examination in third trimester; mild
preeclampsia
4 Jaundice; preeclampsia
5 Placenta previa; eclampsia
Delivery complications Ruptured perineum; medical stimulation of

labor due to weak primary labor
2 Medical stimulation of labor due to weak
secondary labor, irregular position, occiput
posterior
3 Heart sound affected; forceps; stormy labor
4 Transverse lie; breech position
5 Ruptured uterus; umbilical cord prolapse
Neonatal physical status Cyanotic around mouth on first day; weight loss
of 50-100 grams between first and fifth day;
tachycardia with normal respiration;
tachypnea with normal heart action
2 Tachycardia and bradypnea; highest bilirubin
level 15-20 mg percent
3 Rectal temperature at delivery 32 degrees and
above; highest bilirubin level 20-25 mg
percent
4 Strong jaundice; weight loss of 300 grams
between first and fifth day
5 More than 15 minutes between birth and tenth
breath; rectal temperature at delivery less
than 30 degrees
Neonatal neurological status Shivering, restlessness, frog position (not

lasting more than one day); spontaneous
activity characterized by slow movements of
all extremities (on first and fifth day)
2 Suspiciously reduced tonus in extremities;
opisthotonus; increased tonus in extremities
3 Cyanosis attack (not more than one day), color
change; clearly reduced tonus in extremities
Table 1-3, Continued
Severity
Name of Scale Weights Examples of Weighted Items
4 Peripheral convulsions (occurring over more

than one day); tense fontanelles lasting five
days or more
5 Convulsions: unconsciousness; repeated
cyanosis attack
One-year physical status lllness during first year, such as infection in

upper respiratory system, underweight,
overweight
2 Measles; diarrhea, infectious character
3 Otitis; bronchial asthma
4 Convulsions; cranial fracture
5 Meningitis, paralysis
One-year motor development Does not stand with support or crawl until II
months
2 Does not sit without support until 11-12 months
3 Does not sit without support at one year; does
not stand at one year
4 Does not hold head up until 8 months; does not
reach for objects until 11-12 months
5 Does not hold head up until after 9 months; does
not reach for objects at one year
General Analytic Strategy
The design and methodology that one selects depend upon the specific objectives
one has for conducting an inquiry. Once the research design is selected and put in
place, the alternatives for choosing an analytic strategy are reduced drastically. We
contend that the methodological features of the Danish Perinatal Study provide a
setting for observational inquiry that enables both analyses leading to the prediction
of outcomes and analyses leading to heuristics for future research focusing on the
explanation of outcomes. The choices of the analytic paradigms employed in our
study were made with this dual purpose in mind. In short, we argue that the meth-
odological features of our study qualify it as a well-designed "passive observational"
study. We further suggest that as long as the research procedures reflect the distinc-
tion between causal inference goals and forecasting (prediction) goals, the data from
such a study as ours may be subjected to causal as well as predictive analytic tech-
niques. The distinction between predictive regression and structural regression made
by Cook and Campbell [1979, p. 279] may help to clarify the point:
For predictive regression, leaving out a relevant covariate may produce a forecast less
precise than it might otherwise have been but does not lead to any misstatement of the
forecasting relevance of the covariates employed. For structural regression, such an omis-
sion or specification error may again lead to erroneous estimates of both the magnitudes
and signs of the coefficients of the causal paths among the variables at hand. Thus, the
distinction between causal inference from observational data and forecasting from the
same data is a very significant one with many concrete methodological implications.
A Preliminary Consideration: The Influence of Standard Medical

Treatment
Although the Danish data collection was longitudinal in nature, it was, in the main,
ex post facto. No treatment variations or experimental interventions were systemati-
cally imposed enroute, other than standard medical procedures defmed and imple-
mented over time. However, the fIrst 21 months of the Danish Perinatal Study
(gestation plus 12 months) could be likened to a quasi-experimental design for the
following reasons: (1) it approached a deliberate experiment in form because very
precise medical protocols were designed to be made available on a systematic basis,
and (2) though the medical procedures were called "standard" and not "treatment
variations," they do constitute a major difference between the present kind of study
and other kinds of descriptive studies. For example, in population studies [e.g.,
Chamberlain et al. 1975], whatever intervention took place occurred in a nonstan-
dardized form and was neither observed nor systematically recorded. On the other
hand, the medical treatment intervention in the Danish cohort did occur in a system-
atic and standardized way, thus possessing the characteristics of a "natural" experi-
ment. If one were to make a comparison of the Danish cohort with features of
population studies, it would approximate the "nonequivalent control group" design
schematicized as follows:
Study Sample Design

Danish Cohort Study 01->T->02
American Collaborative Study 01->T->02
"Population" Study 01->?->02
0 1 in all studies is comprised of a number of observations related to medical and

sociodemographic characteristics that occurred prior to or at the onset of pregnancy;
and O2 represents a class of medical outcome observations covering pregnancy, peri-
natal, neonatal, and the fIrst 12 months of the surviving infant's life. T signifIes the
standard medical treatment made available in both the Danish and American studies,
whereas the ? indicates the nonstandardized or unknown set of interventions that
took place in the population study. Utilization of a data base such as is provided by
the Danish cohort is unquestionably more desirable from a scientifIc point of view.
It provides explicitly described variables with empirical validations [Cook & Camp-
bell 1979; Klerman 1979], and standardized access to quality medical care serves to
control a pivotal variable [Baizerman, Sheehan, Ellison, & Schlesinger 1974].
Two circumstances, however, influenced not only the interpretation and general-
izability of results, but also the specifIc strategies selected during the course of the
study:
1. Systematic medical intervention during the initial lO-month period will tend
to reduce the association that social, demographic, and family structure fac-
tors have typically had in population studies (for example, irrespective of
economic deprivation, access to medical treatment was not only assured but,
to the extent possible, demanded). This is empirically corroborated by Med-
nick, Baker, and Sutton-Smith [1979] and Mednick et al. [1983] and is fur-
ther discussed in the chapters to follow.
2. The prespecifIed medical examinations and subsequent access to medical
treatment (if treatment is warranted) will tend in most situations to suppress
the magnitude of correlations since variance generally associated with the
outcome events will be somewhat reduced as a function of the medical
intervention.
These circumstances constitute an advantage. Under these circumstances we

should be better able to describe more precisely the specifIc (or unique) nature of the
influence that social and environmental variables have on infant medical outcomes
through the fIrst year of the infant's life.
2 INFLUENCES ON PERINATAL
OUTCOMES
The primary purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how the social and familial char-
acteristics of the pregnant women in this sample were related to the perinatal out-
comes of their children. Specifically, we will deal with the following outcomes:
perinatal mortality, birth weight, and the physical and neurological status of the neo-
nates. The main focus of the chapter will be on the impact of nonmedical antecedent
variables; however, the relative contributions of these variables to neonatal outcomes
will be compared with those of medical antecedents.
Previous Research on Factors Influencing Pregnancy

Outcomes
Social Variables
The personal, social, and economic situations of the pregnant woman have been
shown to be an important influence on the outcome of pregnancy and the health of
the neonate. Several large-scale studies of representative populations have found low
This chapter was written in collaboration with Dennis Hocevar and Thomas Teasdale.
17
SES status and out-of-wedlock pregnancy to be positively correlated with perinatal

mortality and low birth weight [Chamberlain et al. 1975; Dott & Fort 1976; Kessner
et al. 1973; Lambert 1976].
Werner et al. [1971], studying a complete Hawaiian birth cohort, found no effect
of these social variables on other neonatal outcomes, with the exception of a small
birth weight effect. This result was attributed largely to the fact that all subjects in
the study received high-quality medical care from early in pregnancy. The results of
the Hawaiian study were interpreted as support for the notion that variations in access
to medical care resulting from social and/or economic factors are among the major
reasons for the association between such factors and perinatal outcomes. This inter-
pretation received further support from the findings of the white subsample of the
American Collaborative Perinatal Study (N = 19,048) [Niswander & Gordon 1972]
in which the social status of the pregnant woman was also found to be unrelated to
the status of the neonate. The American Collaborative Study is similar to the study
of the Hawaiian cohort in that the subjects all received medical care of high and
uniform quality throughout pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period. Thus, in
the American sample the association between social conditions and access to medical
care was also eliminated.
Maternal Age
Maternal age is another variable that appears to influence or be associated with preg-
nancy outcomes. The relationship between mother's age and neonatal outcomes is
generally described as being J-shaped [Chamberlain et al. 1975], reflecting an ele-
vated level of problems among offspring of teenagers and progressively more prob-
lems for women over age 30. As an example, in several large-scale studies of
different nationalities, perinatal mortality rate has been found to be elevated in teen-
age pregnancies and in pregnancies of older women [Butler & Alberman 1969; Dott
& Fort 1976; Kessner et al. 1973; Lambert 1976]. Contrary to those findings, the
data on the white subsample of the American Collaborative project found no sign of
increased perinatal mortality among the teenage gravidas, only among the older
women [Niswander & Gordon 1972]. Thus, in that sample the relationship between
maternal age and perinatal mortality appeared to be a linear rather than a J-shaped
function.
The reason for this rather discrepant finding may again be the special characteris-
tic of the Collaborative Project sample, that is, the fact that the quality of medical
treatment received by the subjects was maintained at a high level. In contrast to this
study, the studies reporting the J-shaped function were all examining representative
samples for whom medical treatment was allowed to vary as a function of the sub-
jects' own regimen.
INFLUENCES ON PERINATAL OUTCOMES 19
Pregnant teenage girls were overrepresented in the lower SES groups in many of
these studies [Bacon 1974; Chamberlain et al. 1975; Field 1981; Sugar 1976] and
thus were likely to have less adequate care available to them. In addition, the evi-
dence seems to suggest a strong tendency on the part of pregnant teenagers to post-
pone medical care to a later stage of pregnancy [Gill, Illsley, & Koplik 1970;
Robertson 1981; Sugar 1976]. These factors could well be responsible for the higher
incidence rate of perinatal mortality and complications among teenage gravidas in
the general population. Conversely, the inclusion of quality medical care with teen-
age pregnancy in the Collaborative Study design was likely a major reason for the
comparatively low mortality in the teen pregnancies of this sample. Thus, as previ-
ously suggested by Robertson [1981], the treatment-related correlates of teenage
motherhood apparently were instrumental in the heightened perinatal risk for this
group. The practical implication of this conclusion is clearly that initiation of early
and good medical care for all pregnant teenagers should result in the straightening of
the lower part of the J -shaped curve.
This conclusion needs at least one qualification: the social milieu of the teenage
girl may be so oppressive that increased medical care may not eliminate totally its
negative effects. For example, in some of the samples that have been exposed to
good medical care, such as the black subsample of the American Collaborative Study
[Niswander & Gordon 1972] and a subgroup of the sample reported on by Kessner
et al. [1973], the increase in negative pregnancy outcomes among the very young
women who were socially and/or economically deprived was significantly reduced,
but not entirely eliminated. This contrary finding seems to indicate that the back-
ground and history of the pregnant women interact with the medical treatment pro-
vided. Kessner et al. [1973] argued that it is possible that some women experience
such deprived environmental conditions during their own formative years that medi-
cal intervention alone is insufficient for reversing the negative impact of past poor
health on a pregnancy.
Unlike the predominantly social causation explanation for the increased risk in
teenage pregnancies, the higher perinatal mortality rate and incidence of complica-
tions found in pregnant women at the opposite end of the age continuum seem to
have a different etiology. Both studies of university hospital samples [Niswander &
Gordon 1972], in which high-quality care was provided for all patients, and popula-
tion studies show a similar relationship between mother's age and infant mortality
rate for mothers over 30 years of age. Progressively higher maternal age is associated
with increased perinatal death. The cause of this relationship is interpreted to be the
constitutional covariates of maternal age rather than social covariates. The basis for
this view is found in the similarity of the pattern of this relationship and relationships
found between unequivocably medical or constitutional antecedents and mortality
such as multiple birth or height of mother. The latter category of relationships is
consistently replicated across populations and samples of varying nationalities. That
is, whereas the strength of the relationship might vary according to sample and treat-
ment quality and intensity [Kessner et al. 1973; Pharoah 1976], the direction of the
effect remains unaltered. Because the increase in perinatal mortality (as a function of
maternal age of 30 +) is observed so consistently, it is assumed to involve some
considerable degree of constitutional or biological causation.
Parity and Spacing
The number of pregnancies and the time lapse since the last pregnancy (parity and
spacing of pregnancy) consistute two additional maternal variables that impact on
pregnancy outcomes. The research in this area reflects a rather complicated pattern
of findings; nonetheless, it is amenable to a simplified summary. Overall, higher
parities are associated with more problems; however, first parities evidence more
problems than second parities. In addition, there is some indication that if previous
pregnancies have been uncomplicated, fewer problems will occur in later borns. The
tendency for infants of higher parities (later borns) to have more problems is greater
when the pregnancies are closely spaced. This finding seems especially true for
younger women [Clifford 1966; Zachau-Christiansen & Ross 1975].
Clearly, the physical constitution and medical history of the pregnant woman,
coupled with the course of the pregnancy and delivery, will have a very significant
influence on the ultimate status of the neonate. Variables representing these medical
data categories are included in the analyses of neonatal outcomes presented in the
next section in order to provide a more complete picture of the pattern of influences
affecting the neonate. However, a review of the research on the effects of purely
constitutional or medical variables (such as previous or chronic illnesses) is beyond
the scope and focus of this chapter.
Factors Influencing Neonatal Outcomes in the Danish

Perinatal Study
As described in chapter 1 and elaborated by Mednick et al. [1983], the subjects in

the Danish Perinatal Study were exposed to early and uniformly high-quality medical
care irrespective of personal situation and social background. Thus, the sample is
more comparable to the Hawaiian and American Collaborative Project cohorts than
to the other more representative samples such as the British birth cohort [Chamber-
lain et al. 1975]. Thus, we would expect our results concerning influences on neo-
natal outcomes to resemble those of the Hawaiian and Collaborative selected
samples in which there were significantly diminished or completely eliminated as-
sociations between social factors and the outcomes under study. Since the Danish
sample is all Caucasian, it should be most comparable to the white subsample of the
American Collaborative Project. For example, the low SES category most likely
represents a similar range of economic and educational status involving comparable
levels of overall deprivation in the two samples. This is descriptively corroborated in
figure 1-1 and table I-I.
Influence of Maternal and Social Variables on Fetal and

Infant Death
Fetal death or stillbirth rate is defined as the number of deaths per 1,000 pregnancies
occurring in fetuses over 20 weeks gestation. Death may occur prior to, during, or
within 24 hours after delivery. Neonatal death is defined as the number of deaths per
1,000 live borns occurring between the second and the 28th day after birth. In some
cases perinatal mortality rates are reported. This rate is defined as the number of
stillbirths and neonatal deaths per 1,000 pregnancies.
In the interpretation of the mortality rates reported in the following section, it is
important to keep in mind the elevated medical risk characterizing the Danish sam-
ple. The higher rate of low-birth-weight deliveries is especially relevant to the mor-
tality data. Eighteen percent of the Danish sample were born with birth weights
below 2,500 grams, and 6 percent were born under 1,500 grams. As mentioned in
chapter 1, the special rules for referral of patients to Rigshospitalet during the time
of the initial data collection are responsible for this rate. These rates of low-birth-
weight deliveries constitute about three times the rate reported for the general Danish
population at the time. Since low birth weight is very strongly associated with peri-
natal mortality [Chamberlain et al. 1975; Niswander & Gordon 1972], the mortality
rates of the total Danish sample are significantly elevated. The rate for stillbirth is
39.78, for neonatal death, 41. 89.
SES and Perinatal Mortality
By using the British classification of occupations [General Register Office 1951], the
following SES distribution of the total Danish perinatal sample (N = 9,125) was
obtained: high SES, 28.9 percent; middle SES, 40.8 percent; and low SES, 20.6
percent. The remaining 9.7 percent represented missing data on the SES variable.
The data on both stillbirth and neonatal death in the Danish sample provided sup-
port for the notion that the association between low SES and perinatal mortality is
primarily mediated by the quality of medical treatment available. In this sample low
SES was not associated with lower quality care and the association between low SES
and mortality was completely eliminated. The stillbirth rate for low SES was 23.17,
and the rates for middle and high SES were 32.30 and 32.98, respectively. The rates
for neonatal mortality were 34.99 for low SES, 37.27 for middle SES, and 37.40 for
high SES.
These data clearly show that low SES does not constitute an inherent disadvan-
tage, at least on outcomes related to infant mortalities. On the contrary, this group
shows the lowest mortality rates of the three SES groups. The rates for middle and
high SES are both higher from that for low SES but not different from each other.
This distribution of mortality rates obviously reflects the overall high medical risk of
the sample and the special patient referral criteria for Rigshospitalet at that time. As
described in chapter 1, the three major patient groups were inner-city dwellers, un-
married women, and women with previous reproductive loss and complications or
complications of the index pregnancy. The very elevated motality rates of the middle
and high SES groups must, to a large extent, be seen as resulting from the higher
than normal incidence of problem pregnancies in the middle and high SES groups.
Thus, the fact that the low SES group in this sample actually showed less mortality
than the middle and high SES groups, as opposed to a similar rate, may be attributed
to a sampling artifact.
As predicted, the findings described here are consistent with those from other
samples in which control for medical care was imposed, that is, the Hawaiian cohort
and the American Collaborative samples. This yields further support for the notion
that increased perinatal risk of low SES patients in the general population is mediated
by less than adequate medical care.
Out-ot-Wedlock Pregnancy
The distribution of perinatal mortality rates as a function of marital status in the Dan-
ish sample resembles the SES data discussed earlier, in that the single mothers ac-
tually showed a considerably lower rate of infant mortality; for example, the stillbirth
rate was 25.49 versus 48.83 in the married group. Again, the special characteristics
of the sample are likely responsible for the highly elevated rate in the married group.
In this connection, it is of interest to note that a similar distribution of rates, although
lower overall, was found in the white subsample of the American Collaborative
Study [Niswander & Gordon 1972]. In the American sample the comparable rates
were 12.44 for single gravidas and 22.64 for married. An explanation for the ele-
vated mortality rate in the married group of the American sample is the same as for
the Danish sample.
The hospitals involved in the Collaborative Study were also university hospitals
located in the inner cores of large cities servicing a patient population consisting
partly of women living in the surrounding neighborhoods and partly of women re-
ferred because of previous or current problems. As in the Danish study, those re-
ferred because of problems tended to be of somewhat higher SES and were more
frequently married. Had the American and Danish university hospital samples been
representative samples that somehow were exposed to uniform and high-quality
medical care, as was true for the Hawaiian cohort described by Werner et al. [1971],
the results most likely would have resembled the Hawaiian Study and shown the
same level of complications in both single and married women.
The implication of the findings reported in this section clearly supports the posi-
tion that the generally reported association between out-of-wedlock birth and in-
creased perinatal mortality is mediated by an overall poorer level of medical care
available and accessed by this group.
Maternal Age
The data on maternal age and perinatal mortality in the Danish sample present further
evidence of the importance of medical care as a mediator of relationships between
the social characteristics of the gravida and pregnancy outcomes. Similar to the
American Collaborative Project, the maternal age and perinatal mortality relation-
ship was not i-shaped; rather, it approximated a straight linear relationship. Again,
the implication of the finding of comparatively lower mortality among the offspring
of teenage mothers must be seen as resulting from the medical care this group re-
ceived as contrasted to the care received by teenage mothers in the general popula-
tion. The Danish data also support the proposition that the increase in infant
mortality for older women is primarily due to physical factors rather than to the etiol-
ogy described for the very young mothers. Irrespective of the medical care received,
women over 35 years of age showed a progressively higher perinatal mortality rate.
Influence of Maternal and Social Variables on the Condition

of the Neonate
Neonate
Birth weight and neonatal physical and neonatal neurological status were used as
indicators of the neonates' condition. On the basis of the literature as well as the
mortality data described above, it was predicted that the negative impact of social
factors would be comparatively less (if at all) than the impact of medical factors. The
three neonatal status indicators were used as outcome measures in three hierarchical
multiple regression analyses.
Table 2-1. Regression Analysis Results: Neonatal Outcomes
Birth Weight Neonatal Physical Health Neonatal Neurological Status
Independent Variablest Beta sr F:j: Beta sr F:j: Beta sr2 F:j:
Sex -.10 1.09% 55.6* -.04 .13% 6.6* -.03 .11% 5.6*
Socioeconomic status .74% 19.1* .24% 6.0* .46% 11.7*
Mother's age .02 .03% 1.6 .09 .74% 37.7* .04 .13% 6.3*
Marital status -.02 .03% 1.3 .13 1.33% 68.5* .06 .31% 15.7*
Number of older siblings .03 .07% 3.7 .00 .00% <I .00 .00% <I
Months since last birth .00 .00% <1 .00 .00% <1 -.01 .00% <I
Child planned .00 .00% <1 -.01 .02% <1 .02 .04% 1.8
Prior pregnancy complications -.02 .05% 2.4 .01 .00% <1 .03 .06% 3.1
Prior illness .00 .02% <1 -.02 .05% 2.4 -.01 .00% <I
Pregnancy complications -.07 .46% 23.6* .11 1.18% 61.5* .09 .74% 38.0*
Gestational age .54 28.2% 2044* -.37 13.2% 795.7* -.36 12.5% 732.7*
Birth weight -.08 .40% 24.0* - .17 1.91% 114.6*
Delivery complications -.01 .01% <1 .29 7.66% 512.2* .15 2.18% 134.0*
tlndependent variables are listed in order of entry into the regression analysis: N = 5,036, SES was coded as a categorical variable.
:j:F-ratios are a test of the significance of an independent variable's incremental increase in R' at the point of entry.
*p < .05.
Table 2-1 presents the predictor variables used in these analyses. A few of these
predictors need further description. Prior illness, prior pregnancy complications, and
child planned variables are scored as dichotomous on the basis of occurrence-non-
occurrence. Specifically, mothers were scored as having prior pregnancy complica-
tions (coded 1) if there was a prior reproductive casualty (stillbirth, for example),
and mothers were scored as having prior illness (coded 1) if there was any recurring
serious illness (diabetes or heart problems, for example) in their adult life. Nonoc-
currence on prior illness and prior pregnancy complications was coded zero. The
child planned variable was coded 1 if the mother stated that she planned the child
and 2 if she said that the child was not planned. Finally, marital status was coded 2
for married and 1 for not married.
The predictor variables are listed in the order of their entry into the regression.
Order of entry was based on theoretical and temporal considerations [Cohen &
Cohen 1975]. An example of a theoretical consideration is that birth weight was
entered after gestational age in order to control for the effects of gestational age when
evaluating the contribution of birth weight. An example of a temporal consideration
is that prior (previous) pregnancy complications occurred before the pregnancy com-
plications with the index child; consequently, prior pregnancy complications was en-
tered in the regression before pregnancy complications.
The number for these analyses was 5,036. This constituted what appears to be a
40 percent subject attrition from the original cohort of 9, 125. When the 730 infants
who suffered stillbirth or neonatal death were subtracted, 3,359 subjects were still
unaccounted for. While perinatal and neonatal data were available on all 3,359, we
elected to eliminate all subjects who did not possess complete one-year examination
data. Such a procedure provided us with an identical case-by-case match. Identical
samples for the studies described in chapters 2 and 3 would at least help us avoid any
problems of interpretation related to sampling differences between the neonatal and
the one-year studies. While this protected us from one validity threat, the question of
subject attrition remained. This problem was addressed in two ways. First, the 5,036
subjects were compared with the 3,359 subjects on six variables: SES, wantedness
of the child, marital status at birth of the index child, and the three neonatal health
scores. No differences were found on any of the variables. The second check in-
volved running the regression analysis using two procedures for dealing with missing
data: casewise deletion and pairwise deletion. Since the results were generally the
same, we elected to use the casewise deletion procedure for descriptive clarity.
For the readers who are interested in problems associated with longitudinal re-
search, describing why this dilemma occurred might be useful. It should be pointed
out that while this was a prospective study, much of the medical and physical data
we used constituted a secondary analysis of a data base designed for another purpose
(see chapter I). This caused no problems through the neonatal examinations. How-
ever, at the one-year examination we were interested in using some first-year infor-
mation that was nonmedical (for example, maternal employment and utilization of
infant day care). Though these items were included on the medical examination pro-
tocol used by the physicians, complete data were not obtained. Since the Danish
cohort is a selected sample and not representative, our fIrst concern was not so much
related to generalizability to a parent population; it was that we simply wanted to
make certain that the data omissions were not systematically related to special char-
acteristics within the sample.
The general F-test for increments in variance accounted for [Cohen & Cohen
1975, pp. 135-138] was used to test the signifIcance of each independent variable's
contribution to the squared multiple correlation at the point of entry to the regression.
Table 2-1 shows the regressions for birth weight, neonatal physical health, and neo-
natal neurological status. The standardized beta weight, squared semipartial correla-
tions (sr) and F-ratios are also included in table 2-1. The squared semipartial
correlation is the increase in the squared multiple correlation that results when an
independent variable is added to the regression. The F-ratio is a test of the signifI-
cance of sr.
The multiple correlation between birth weight and the independent variables was
.55, F(13,5022) = 171.1, P < .001. Regression results indicated that lower birth
weight was associated with the following variables:
Female infants.
Socioeconomic status (see table 2-2).
Pregnancy complications.
Lower gestational age.
The multiple correlation for neonatal physical health is .50, F(l4,5021) = 119.0
P < .001, and the multiple correlation for neonatal neurological status was .43,
F(14,5021) = 81.1 P < .001. Poorer neonatal physical health was associated with
the following variables:
Male infants.
Socioeconomic status (see table 2-2).
Married mothers.

Low birth weight.
Delivery complications.
Poor neonatal neurological status had the same correlates.
Birth Weight
As expected, gestational age, pregnancy complications, and complications in prior

pregnancies were related to lower birth weight. These findings conform to the liter-
ature on birth weight [Niswander & Gordon 1972; Zachau-Christiansen & Ross
1975]. The finding that males are heavier than females at birth is also in agreement
with the general literature [Tanner 1962].
As shown in table 2-2, the SES variable was analyzed in greater detail with an
ANaVA and Scheffe post hoc comparisons. Table 2-2 shows the means for low,
middle, and high SES on the three neonatal outcomes. With respect to birth weight,
as well as neonatal physical health and neonatal neurological status, the statistical
pattern showed that the important difference was between high SES and the com-
bined low and middle SES categories. Thus, the data are not in opposition to the
position that negative effects of low SES on neonatal outcomes have been attenuated
in the Danish sample. Rather, our interpretation of these data is that given adequate
medical treatment across all SES groups, infants born into the highest group showed
a statistically significant tendency to be heavier and healthier. This fmding could be
due to such factors as better nutrition prior to and during pregnancy and better habits
during pregnancy (less smoking and drinking, and so on). However, the important
point that should be emphasized is that the positive influence of high SES, not the
negative influence of low SES, caused the significant difference.
Table 2-2. Mean Medical Scores and F-Values Reflecting Socioeconomic

Differences in Infant Health Status
Medical Measure Low Middle High F df

SES SES SES
l. Birth weight 5.81' 5.82' 6.13 b 19.33* 2,5033
2. Neonatal physical health 5.17 5.48' 4.94b 5.92* 2,5033
3. Neonatal neurological status 16.65' 16.62' 15.09b 11.58* 2,5033
Note: High scores on measures 2 and 3 indicate negative neonatal outcomes (i.e., poor neonatal
health). Groups with different superscripts differ at the .05 level (Scheffe test).
*p < .05.
Neonatal Physical Status
Several significant medical precursors of poor neonatal physical status were noted:
lower gestational age, lower birth weight, delivery complications, and pregnancy
complications. It should be pointed out that the sex difference found in the analysis
of physical health is in the opposite direction and smaller than the one reported for
birth weight. The tendency for boys to be more physically vulnerable (that is, to
show more effects of physical trauma) has been documented by others, notably by
Maccoby and Jacklin [1974]. The present finding supports the hypothesis that males
show more negative effects of the birth process than do females. This also corre-
sponds to the well-replicated rmding of higher perinatal mortality among males [Za-
chau-Christiansen & Ross 1975].
Socioeconomic status showed a modest but significant relationship with neonatal
physical status. As discussed earlier, examination of table 2-2 showed that the statis-
tically significant difference is actually between the middle and the high SES. The
mean for the low SES group indicates better status for that group than for the middle
SES. This again supports the notion that there were no negative effects of low SES
at the neonatal level in the Danish sample.
Marital status also showed a significant association in that more married mothers
have infants with poorer physical health; but this counterintuitive relationship must,
as in the case of the mortality data presented earlier, be interpreted as a result of the
special characteristics of the sample previously described.
Neonatal Neurological Status
The similarity between the findings for neonatal physical status and neonatal neuro-
logical status makes special discussion of the latter variable unnecessary.
Policy Implications: A Summary Note
The data on the Danish perinatal sample further support the conclusions that were
based on the Hawaiian and American Collaborative perinatal samples, in which
quality medical treatment was provided as a constant across SES groups and other
nonmedically defined risk groups. That is, it seems beyond doubt that if early, regu-
lar, and high-quality medical care is made available to teenage and/or unmarried
pregnant women, and in general to pregnant women of low SES, the pregnancies
and deliveries of these groups may not possess any greater risk than do those of other
groups.
The increasing incidence of pregnancies among very young and unmarried

women in the United States has been identified as a serious social problem [Baldwin
& Caine 1980]. The seriousness of the problem is due to the dramatically elevated
levels of perinatal risk, as well as of more long-term developmental risks, associated
with such pregnancies in the general population [Scott, Field, & Robertson 1981].
The results of the studies of cohorts exposed to adequate pre- and perinatal care
provide important leads for the design of successful preventive intervention pro-
grams. Certainly, the findings from these studies dramatize the need to address the
problem of unavailability of adequate pre- and perinatal care to the low SES popula-
tion of this country in general.
The lack of attention to this problem represents one reason for the progressively
wider gap between the neonatal outcomes of infants born to low and high SES moth-
ers. Pregnancies in low SES women are associated with an increasing comparative
incidence of mortality, low birth weight, and other nonoptimal conditions or prob-
lems in the neonate. According to the findings reported in this chapter, provision of
standardized high-quality medical care for pregnant women of low socioeconomic
backgrounds should serve to counteract and even reverse this trend. The importance
of reducing the perinatal risk in these groups is socially compelling, even if the focus
is restricted to the obvious need to reduce the mortality rates and disabling conditions
in a segment of the population for whom the prevalence of such consequences is
disproportionately large.
However, of equal importance is the necessity to consider the strong existing evi-
dence that organic problems that have been caused by perinatal complications of
even comparatively less seriousness are exacerbated when they are accompanied by
social risk. Organic problems in interaction with social risk factors create more long-
lasting and disabling behavioral and intellectual problems [Birch & Gussow 1970;
Drillien 1964; Sameroff & Chandler 1975]. These investigators found that problems
in pregnancy, as well as birth-related problems in the neonate, were generally suc-
cessfully compensated for during early childhood years in middle-class children.
Such was not the case for children born into low SES environments or environments
characterized by other types of social risk factors. For them, the problems tended to
persevere and become manifest in a number of aspects of their developing behavioral
repertoires.
Thus, programs that effectively improve the pre- and perinatal medical care of
groups to whom such care is currently not available would have an immediately
observable and positive influence on neonatal outcomes. In addition, the improved
medical care would constitute an important fust step toward preventing later intellec-
tual and behavioral problems in children who are considered at some risk develop-
mentally due to their social situation.
3 PERINATAL AND SOCIAL
INFLUENCES ON ONE-YEAR
PHYSICAL OUTCOMES
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the relative influence of medical and social
variables on the infant's health status and motor development level at one year of
age. As described in chapter 1, following discharge from the obstetric ward the next
scheduled contact between the collaborators on the Danish neonatal project and the
mother-infant pairs was an intensive medical examination of the infants that was
conducted as closely as possible to the fIrst birthday. After birth and during the fIrst
year, the infants were not involved in any special preventive medical care program;
health care during this period was left entirely to the individual families. Thus, the
one-year follow-up inquiries did not include the imposed access to medical care that
characterized the pregnancy and neonatal inquiries. The one-year examination con-
sisted of a thorough physical and neurological examination carried out at the pedi-
atric outpatient ward at Rigshospitalet. When parents were unable to bring their child
to the hospital, home visits were arranged.
In addition to the examination of the children, information collected in connection
with the one-year follow-up included a questionnaire fIlled out by all of the mothers.
The questionnaire was given to the mothers at the time of discharge from the obstet-
ric ward and was responded to at appropriate times during the fIrst year. The items in
the questionnaire related to the infants' developmental progress and general health
This chapter was written in collaboration with Dennis Hocevar and Thomas Teasdale.
31
during the fIrst year. The mothers were instructed to fIll out age-relevant portions of
the questionnaire at specifIc times during the year so as to keep the information cur-
rent rather than retrospective. Data related to visits to the free national infant health
examination, admission to hospitals or other institutions, and records of immuniza-
tions. For the analyses reported in this chapter, the two one-year summary scores
measuring physical health status and motor developmental level were used as the
outcomes. The development and nature of these scores were described in chapter 1.
However, to reiterate, high numbers on the physical health status and motor devel-
opment status indicate poorer health and poorer motor development, respectively.
The Association of Medical and Social Factors with Long-

Term Developmental Outcomes
Medical Variables
A large number of published studies has dealt with the prediction of outcomes within
the fIrst few years of life using measures of perinatal and neonatal medical compli-
cations or deviance as predictors [Cohen 1981; Goldstein, Caputo, & Taub 1976;
Hunt 1981; Parmelee, Kopp, & Sigman 1976; Parmelee & Michaelis 1971; Prechtl
1965; Rosenblith 1966; Sigman, Cohen, & Forsythe 1981; St. Claire 1978]. The
most frequently used outcome variables in this body of literature were measures of
cognitive and neurological/motor developmental functioning [Drage & Berendes
1966; Field 1981; Field, Hallock, Ting, Dempsey, Dabini, & Schuman 1978; Gold-
stein et al. 1976; Honzik, Hutchings, & Burnip 1965; Hunt 1981; Niswander, Fried-
man, Hoover, Pietrowsky, & Westphal 1966; Rubin, Rosenblatt, & Balow 1973;
Sigman et al. 1981]. Only a few studies have focused on the physical health of the
young child as an outcome variable [Fitzhardinge & Ramsey 1973; Werner, Bier-
man, & French 1971]. The overall fInding from both classes of studies is that infants
who have suffered neonatal complications show signifIcantly elevated rates of prob-
lems in physical, cognitive, neurological, and motor developmental functioning dur-
ing early childhood. However, prediction of outcomes for individual children on the
basis of type and severity of perinatal complications has not been very successful
[Hunt 1981; Sigman et al. 1981].
Environmental Variables
The most generally accepted explanation for the relative lack of predictive power of
neonatal events is the fact that later functioning of the individual child is determined
both by the child's constitution and by the specifIc characteristics of the environment
to which the child is exposed. With the exception of complications that result in
PERINATAL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON ONE-YEAR PHYSICAL OUTCOMES 33
debilitating disorders, the overall predictive power of environmental variables alone

has been shown to be considerably stronger than that of constitutional variables [Bro-
man, Nichols, & Kennedy 1975; Caputo, Goldstein, & Taub 1981; Sameroff 1981;
Sameroff & Chandler 1975].
Clearly, the most long-lasting and detrimental influence of peri- and neonatal
complications on child outcomes can be expected for those children who are growing
up in families characterized by a variety of other types of risk factors, mainly of a
social nature [Birch & Gussow 1970; Drillien 1964; Neligan, Kolvin, Scott, & Gar-
side 1976; Werner et al. 1971; Zachau-Christiansen & Mednick 1981]. As men-
tioned in chapter 2, the long-term negative impact of peri- and neonatal problems
tends to be significantly increased under less than optimal child-rearing conditions.
On the other hand, in homes characterized as nurturing and stimulating, the negative
effects have been significantly reduced or completely counteracted.
Thus, one explanation of the above effect is that environmental variables are
likely to constitute by far the strongest influence on development from the early
childhood years on. Whereas the impact of peri- and neonatal variables is directly
observable from birth, environmental variables begin to show their impact gradually
over the first years of the infant's life. For example, global status descriptors such as
socioeconomic status have shown no significant relationships with scores on stan-
dard measures of infant cognitive functioning until sometime during the second year
[Bronfenbrenner 1974; Kagan, Kearsley, & Zelazo 1978; Sigman, Cohen, Beck-
with, & Parmelee 1981]. In studies using descriptors of the dynamics of the devel-
opmental milieu - for example, quality of home or mother-child interaction patterns
- test scores have shown an earlier association with environmental variations
[Beckwith, Cohen, Kopp, Parmelee, & Marcy 1976; Yarrow, Rubinstein, Pederson,
& Janowsky 1972]. Negative influences of low SES on physical health measures
have been observed by the end of the first 12 months of age [Werner et al. 1971],
whereas early motor development has not been found to be negatively associated
with low SES. On the contrary, in a study by Bayley [1965], lower SES was associ-
ated with relatively more rapid motor development at one year.
Measures of cognitive functioning were considered beyond the scope of the Dan-
ish Perinatal Study, as it was originally conceived, and therefore were not included
in the one-year follow-up examination. However, since physical health in previous
studies has shown a sensitivity to global measures of the family environment (such
as SES) at an earlier age than do measures of cognitive functioning, inclusion of
cognitive measures as an outcome area in a study of environmental influences during
the fust year of life would be useful. As stated above, no special conditions prevailed
for the sample during the first year after the birth of the subjects; thus, the sample
conditions approximated those of the general population. Since this was the case, we
would expect the one-year outcomes to yield results similar to those generally re-
ported in the literature. In other words, we would expect less advantaged social and
economic conditions to reflect a negative association with physical health and no
relationship, or perhaps a positive association, with motor development.
Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were completed predicting to one-

year physical status and one-year motor development. The predictor variables em-
ployed in these analyses were the same as those used in the analyses of neonatal
outcomes (chapter 2) with two additional sets of variables: (1) the two neonatal out-
come measures - neonatal physical and neonatal neurological status (these two
variables were entered in the analyses after the delivery complications variable); and
(2) two variables relevant to the experiences of the infants during the first year -
mother's employment status and use of institutional day care (each was coded as
occurrence-nonoccurrence). Table 3-1 includes the list of predictor variables in the
order in which each entered the equations.
As noted in chapter 2, only cases with complete records from the first prenatal
visit through the one-year follow-up examination were included in the analyses (N
= 5,036). Comparisons between cases with complete data and cases with missing
data yielded no significant differences in SES or selected medical risk indicators.
Regression results for one-year physical health and one-year motor development
are shown in table 3-1. For one-year physical health, the multiple correlation was
Table 3-1. Regression Results: One-Year Outcomes
One-Year Physical One-Year Motor

Health Development
Independent Variables Beta sr F Beta sr F
Sex -.09 .74% 37.6* .00 .00% <I

Socioeconomic status 1.51% 38.7* .17% 4.3*
Mother's age .01 .02% <I .09 .65% 33.0*
Marital status .01 .01% <I .05 .24% 12.2*
Number of older siblings .06 .33% 17.0* .02 .02% <I
Spacing .01 .00% <I .00 .00% <I
Child planned .03 .09% 4.4* .00 .00% <1
Prior pregnancy complications .01 .02% <1 .00 .00% <1
Prior illness .05 .28% 14.5* .00 .00% <1
Pregnancy complications .08 .51% 29.7* .03 .07% 3.6
Gestational age - .13 1.76% 93.4* - .31 9.48% 533.3*
Birth weight - .15 1.49% 80.2* - .16 1.88% 108.0*
Delivery complications .01 .01% <1 .04 .13% 7.7*
Neonatal nuerological .12 1.09% 59.6* .12 1.26% 73.6*
complications
Neonatal physical health .07 .30% 16.5* .11 .74% 43.2*
problems
Mother employed .14 1.73% 96.5* -.01 .00% <I
Day institution .15 1.76% 99.8* .02 .02% 1.1
*p < .05.
.34, F( 18 ,50 17) = 36.91, p < .00 1. Results indicated that poorer one-year physical
health was significantly associated with the following variables:
Socioeconomic status (see also table 3-2).

Male infants.
Infants in larger families.
Mothers who did not plan their child.
Mothers who had a serious prior illness.
Lower birth weight.
Poor neonatal physical health.
Poor neonatal neurological status.
Infants in day-care institutions.
Mother employed.
It is important to note that though these relationships are statistically significant, the
percentage of "explained variance" added to the regression by each independent
variable is generally quite small. In fact, six independent variables are significant
even though they add less than 1 percent of the variance to the regression.
For one-year motor development, the multiple correlation was .38, F(l8,5017)
= 47.98, P < .00l. As shown in table 3-1, the results indicated that slow motor
development was significantly associated with the following variables:
Socioeconomic status (see also table 3-2).

Older mothers.
Infants with married parents.
Lower gestational age
Lower birth weight.
Delivery complications.
Poor neonatal physical health.
Poor neonatal neurological status.
Again, most independent variables added only a small percentage of the variance to
the total amount of variance explained. One notable exception is gestational age,
which accounted for 9.5 percent of the variance in the one-year motor development
analysis.
One-Year Physical Health
The overall pattern of results in the analysis of one-year physical health suggests that
the effects of environmental variables on physical health are definitely observable at
age 12 months. Five environmental variables showed a significant association with
one-year physical health: SES, number of older siblings, whether or not the child
was planned, institutional day care, and mother's employment.
Table 3-2 shows that the observed pattern of mean values for one-year health
arrayed on the basis of SES differs from that of the neonatal variables. One-year
physical health reflected a linear relationship with SES, suggesting that low SES
children have the poorest health status and high SES the best. The differences be-
tween and among all the means are statistically significant. Note that for the one-year
physical health outcome, low SES showed an observable negative association not
found in the analysis of neonatal status studies (refer back to table 2-2). In this re-
spect, the Danish data support the fmdings of Werner et al. [1971] and confirm the
prediction we made in this chapter's opening that SES relationships with outcomes
measured at age one year would approximate those reported of representative popu-
lation studies.
A point worth noting is that the magnitude of the negative association with a
variable such as low SES in this study is likely an underestimate of the association to
be found in the general population. That is, in samples in which no systematic pre-
and perinatal medical intervention has been introduced, the neonates born to lower
SES mothers will experience a higher incidence of neonatal impairment. Thus, in
such samples, the negative influence of low SES on one-year health will likely be
the result of the cumulative pre- and postnatal negative influences of this variable.
Since low SES infants in the Danish sample evidenced no greater number of perina-
tal complications at birth in comparison to the other SES groups, the inference is
warranted that the differences at the one-year level are the result of postnatal SES
influences alone.
The remaining environmental variables that had significant associations with one-
year physical status (family size, unplanned pregnancy, maternal employment, and
institutional day care) seem to share at least one common element: decreased avail-
ability to the child of individual adult attention. This condition, of course, may also
be associated with lower SES. However, the fact that these variables all entered the
Table 3-2. Mean Medical Scores and F-Values Reflecting Socioeconomic

Differences in One-Year Health Status
Medical Measure Low SES Middle SES High SES F df
One-year physical health 9.36' 8.23 b 7.43' 38.21 * 2,5033

One-year motor development 2.70" 2.96b 3.03b 4.30* 2,5033
Note: High scores on the medical measures indicate negative one-year outcomes (e.g., poor
health). Groups with different superscripts differ at the .05 level (Scheffe test).
*p < .05.
equation after the SES variance had been partialed out constitutes evidence that these
variables each make an independent and additive contribution.
As expected, most of the medical variables measured at birth were significantly
associated with one-year physical health. Specifically, poorer one-year health was
associated with the occurrence of a serious prepregnancy illness in the mother, preg-
nancy complications, low gestational age, and low birth weight. Another point worth
noting is that delivery complications, which showed by far the strongest effect on
neonatal status, was not predictive of one-year physical health. In contrast, preg-
nancy complications, which showed a relationship with the neonatal level, was still
a relatively strong predictor of the one-year variable. This fmding is in agreement
with Pasamanick and Knobloch [1960] and Towbin [1978], who maintained that the
mechanical injuries incurred in connection with the delivery will generally have less
long-term effects than the anoxia-producing complications associated with
pregnancy.
Seemingly, the most significant rmding in this study is that in spite of the fact that
infants from less than optimal environmental conditions experienced none of the ex-
pected negative consequences at birth, their immunization to the effects of the nega-
tive social elements begins to diminish within the fust year. Clearly, the practical
implication is that in order to maintain the health of individuals in socially vulnerable
groups, access to good medical care should be continued into and perhaps through
childhood.
One-Year Motor Development
The results of the analyses of one-year motor development present a different picture
than the one described for the physical health variable. These analyses showed that
the medical variables (birth weight, neonatal physical and neurological status, preg-
nancy complications, and delivery complications) were by far the most important
predictors of one-year motor development. Further, the maternal variables (mother's

age, number of previous pregnancies, and mother's marital status), previously
shown to be associated with the neonatal status measures, provided small but statis-
tically significant contributions to the equation.
SES made a significant but very weak impact on one-year motor development.
However, inspection of table 3-2 indicates that this relationship is in the opposite
direction from the one reported for physical health. That is, middle and high SES
groups have poorer mean motor development scores than the low SES groups. As
noted previously, this fmding has been reported in the literature by Beckwith, Cohen,
Kopp, Parmelee, and Marcy [1976], who hypothesized that this is due to the obser-
vation that low SES mothers permit their children greater locomotive freedom.
The Influence of Age of Caretaker on One-Year Health
As described in chapter 2, the relationship between maternal age and neonatal out-
comes has been extensively researched. Comparatively less work has been done to
clarify the relationship between maternal age and the postnatal development of chil-
dren. The great majority of work has been concerned with documenting the negative
effects of child rearing by a teenage mother [Baizerman 1977; Baldwin 1976].
Therefore, little is known about the relative advantages and disadvantages of being
raised by women who give birth during their 20s, 30s, or 4Os. However, Dott and
Fort [1976] noted that infants born to older mothers show lower postnatal death rates.
One interpretation of this fmding is that older women are "better" infant caretakers
and that is why they appear more successful in keeping their infants alive. Of course,
there is also the possibility that the decreased postneonatal death rate may be due to
the fact that a disproportionately larger number of infants born to older mothers die
during the neonatal period and the infants who do survive are generally stronger and
more resistant.
Support for the notion that having an older mother constitutes a beneficial influ-
ence on physical development is presented by Goldstein [1971]. He found that moth-
er's age was positively correlated with height at age 7. Also, within the area of
academic functioning there is some evidence that an older mother constitutes a posi-
tive influence. Record, McKeown, and Edwards [1969] found a linear relationship
between children's cognitive performance and the total range of mother's age. That
is, higher maternal age was associated with better cognitive performance by the
child. Finally, Kellam, Ensminger, and Turner [1977] found that children born to
mothers who were in their 20s or older developed fewer psychiatric problems in
adolescence than did children born to women below that age. Thus, there seems to
be a general tendency for higher maternal age to be associated with more optimal
postnatal development.
The negative influence that higher maternal age had on neonatal outcomes sug-
gests that a biological explanation is warranted. However, it appears that the most
plausible hypothesis for explaining the positive impact that older maternal age has
on postnatal development rests on the presence of positive environmental correlates
associated with an older mother. Specifically, it may be that older mothers create
environments that are more nurturant and thus more conducive to optimal develop-
ment of offspring. This could be attributed to the likelihood that older mothers have
a higher level of maturity and experience. It could also be a function of the probable
higher SES and educational levels that often characterize women who postpone
childbearing until their 20s or later [Baldwin 1976].
In our study, the comparison of mean one-year physical health scores of children
born to teenagers, to women between 20 and 34 years of age, and to women above
age 35 did not yield any significant differences. However, there was a tendency for
children of the mothers above age 35 to have the fewest health problems. This find-
ing must be reflected against the background of the data presented in chapter 2 that
showed a highly elevated level of perinatal <:omplications in children from this
group. The fact that this initial negative condition was counteracted in the one-year
health data, and that the trend even reversed, seems to lend at least tentative support
to the notion that higher maternal age is a beneficial condition for healthy postnatal
development.
At the other end of the mother-age spectrum, children born to teenage mothers
clearly lost the advantage over older mothers that they had at the neonatal examina-
tion by the time the one-year health examination was completed. To help clarify
possible reasons for this, further analyses of the child-rearing conditions of this group
were completed. Table 3-3 defines the four first-year home environments for chil-
dren born to teenage mothers (ages 12 to 18). The mean scores and standard devia-
tions for the one-year physical health scale are shown for each of the four groups.
As noted in the table, the single classification ANOVA yielded a statistically sig-
nificant home environment difference on the outcome variable (F4f(3,542) = 2.73,
p < .05). A post hoc analysis of the group means indicated that while groups 1 and
2 did not differ statistically, group 1 differed from both groups 3 and 4. Group 1
infants, who lived with their mother and grandmother, showed the best health status,
and groups 3 and 4, infants living with the mother alone or in a foster home, the
worst. Group 2 infants, who lived with their teenage mother and biological father,
were in the middle position and did not differ significantly from either group 1 or
groups 3 and 4.
Beneficial effects of living with a grandmother were also reported by Kellam et
al. [1977]. They found adaptation to school entry best among children who lived
with both biological parents or with mother and grandmother. Adaptation was re-
duced for children living with mother alone, and the lowest adaptation was observed
in children who were living with mother and a stepfather. The explanation offered
Table 3-3. Relationship Between First-Year Physical Health of Infants Born to

Teenage Mothers and Home Environment
Number of Average Health Standard

Group Home Environment Children Score at One Year* Deviation
Infants living with 199 7.60 5.40

grandmother and mother
2 Infants living with mother 245 8.46 5.32
and father
3 Infants living with mother 50 9.20 4.67
alone
4 Infants living with foster 53 9.69 6.97
parents or in an institution
TOTAL 547 8.33 5.51
*Note that a higher score means more health problems at one year.
rested on the net amount of adult attention available to the children in each of these
types of home environments. The most attention is likely to be given to a child in a
home with two adults who are both highly motivated to enhance the welfare of the
child, that is, the parents or parent and grandparent. Less attention is likely to be paid
to a child in a one-parent family, where all the burdens of maintaining the household
and child rearing are the responsibilities of one adult. According to this argument,
the explanation for the mother-stepfather home being the least conducive for child
development is that a stepfather may at times be motivated more by personal needs
than by the welfare of a stepchild; thus, he would serve to distract the mother's atten-
tion from the child's needs.
The Kellam findings were based on a sample that included the entire range of
maternal ages. The fact that the data presented in table 3-3 pertain only to the teen-
age mothers in the Danish sample may account for the very slight differences in
findings with regard to the relative advantage of mother-grandmother over mother
and father. That is, in the teenage sample the mother-grandmother home provided
the advantage of both the availability of two child-oriented adults and the presence
of an older, more mature adult to support the teenager. Thus, the analyses of the
teenage mothers show that the decline in physical health of their offspring, compared
to children of older mothers, may be a result of the three subgroups in which the
grandmother was not part of the home environment. The mean scores on one-year
physical health for the three nongrandmother groups were all above the mean for the
total sample (8.22, with a higher score indicating poorer health). The one-year phys-
ical health score of the grandmother-reared group, on the other hand, was compara-
ble to the score obtained by the children in the sample who were born to women over
35; the mean one-year health score for this group was 7.55. The data from the Danish
sample showed that while older maternal age has negative consequences for the
course and outcome of pregnancy, it constitutes a beneficial postnatal influence on
development.
A Final Note
Our major conclusion, drawn from the inquiry reported in this chapter, is that the
importance of environmental variables as predictors of physical outcomes emerges
during the first year of life. This is in contrast to the findings reported in chapter 2,
where neonatal outcomes were predicted exclusively by medical variables. The ob-
served relation<;hips in the one-year status analyses of the Danish sample are weaker
than those that might be obtained in a study of the general population, since the
association between social risk variables and access to quality medical care was elim-
inated by the mandatory participation program. Coincidental with the cessation of
the medical care program, and over the first year of the infant's life, social-risk vari-
ables began to emerge as reliable predictors of one-year health status. Lower SES,
day-care experience, large family size, maternal employment, unwantedness of the
pregnancy, and young maternal age were found to be related to poorer health. One-
year motor development, on the other hand, was found to be unrelated to such envi-
ronmental factors; it appears to be predominantly determined by constitutional fac-
tors. SES did show a significant relationship with this outcome but in the opposite
direction of the one observed with physical health. That is, low SES was associated
with the fastest motor development.
II FOLLOW-UP OF THE COHORT
INTO ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG
ADULTHOOD
The set of inquiries reported in part II constitutes a follow-up of the 857

subjects random!y selected from the total Danish birth cohort of 9, 125. The
analytic procedures were chosen with the specific objective of determining
both the direct and indirect effects of an array of social, family-structure, and
medical variables on the long-term academic and psychosocial outcomes for
the index child.
The chapters are organized thematically. This enhances readability in that
the literature reviews and our findings are homogenized around topics that
have considerable historical as well as contemporary currency. Such an or-
ganization also serves to clarify the similarities and differences in the patterns
of relationships among predictors and outcomes when the focus shifts from
one set of conditions (for example, divorce in chapter 5) to another (for ex-
ample, maternal employment in chapter 6).
While each of the last five chapters of part II has been prepared to stand
alone, they do have a continuity that makes reading them in the order pre-
sented more comprehensible. Certainly, chapter 4 should be read first, since
it describes the sample, variables, and the general analytic procedures rele-
vant to all subsequent chapters.
43
44 FOLLOW-UP OF THE COHORT INTO ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD
Part II is organized as follows:
Chapter 4. The Follow-Up: Sample, Variables, and Procedures

Chapter 5. Divorce and Family Instability
Chapter 6. Maternal Employment and Child Day Care
Chapter 7. Family Size and Birth Order
Chapter 8. Correlates of Adolescent and Young Adult Male Criminal
Behavior
Chapter 9. Long-Term Consequences for Adolescents Identified as At-
Risk at Birth
The inquiry that formed the basis for chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 of this
book was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,
Grant Award Number 75-7-060, "The Consequences of Family Structure
and Maternal State for Child and Mother's Development."
Portions of chapters 4 and 7 will appear in a report to be published in
the Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1985, 31 (January), entitled "Family Size
and Birth-Order Correlates of Intellectual, Psychosocial, and Physical
Growth Measures. "
4 THE FOLLOW-UP: SAMPLE,
VARIABLES, AND PROCEDURES
General Analytic Framework
The 18-to-23-year follow-up study that fonned the basis for the chapters in part IT is
an example of a study that made secondary use of the data fIles of the original Danish
Perinatal Study. The data base used for the part I chapters was subsequently aug-
mented by additional procedures that were designed to optimize the utility of the
original data sets for prospectively viewing the development of the cohort over an
18-to-23-year period. Technically, this constituted a follow-up study of individuals
at successive stages of life, as contrasted with a typical cohort study covering a spec-
ified period of time [Janson 1981]. The distinction between the two types of longi-
tudinal approaches becomes somewhat blurred in the chapters to follow simply
because we attempted to reconstruct at the time of follow-up selected elements and
events that intervened between the 1959-1961 perinatal inquiry and the 1977-1981
follow-up of the birth cohort. Selection of intervening data items was based on reli-
ability and relevance.
To facilitate an understanding of how and why the topical chapters in part II were
configured, we will fIrst describe the temporal and content characteristics of the
classes of variables as they are related to when they were observed or measured,
recorded, collected, and then codifIed for our purposes:
45
1. Infant health measures at the perinatal and one-year levels, family structure,
maternal state, and selected social variables that were obtained at that time
for the total perinatal sample were observed or measured and recorded as part
of the original Danish Perinatal Study during the 21-month period of preg-
nancy through the fIrst year of the child's life. The actual data items were
collected and codifIed for secondary analysis purposes in 1977 (see chapters
1, 2, and 3 for a detailed account of the procedures used).
2. Additional sociodemographic, maternal state, family structure, and criminal-
ity data for a 10 percent sample of the original birth cohort of 9,125 were
collected and codifIed during the 1977-1981 period. These variables pro-
vided data-item coverage for the 1960-1981 period and were derived from
data that were measured and recorded at the times of occurrence in the Dan-
ish National Population Register, the Danish Police Register, the school
health records, and the school psychologists' records. These data constituted
the major portion of the interval "bridge" between 1961 and the actual fol-
low-up conducted during 1979 to 1981.
3. Contemporary and retrospective accounts of the children and family situa-
tions were described by the mothers to trained psychiatric social workers via
a structured in-home interview conducted during the 1977-1979 period.
Clearly, answers to retrospective questions are contaminated by the effects of
negative or positive response sets resulting from contemporary conditions, as
well as by the frailties of the mothers' memory. Therefore, care was exer-
cised to stick to fact-fmding in order to avoid the false negatives and positives
often associated with such retrospective questioning procedures. The re-
sponses to these questions were enhanced or elaborated by clinical impres-
sions made by the social worker to prespecified attributes of parental
behavior and home conditions.
4. Contemporary descriptions and judgments of the adolescents' academic
progress and psychosocial adaptation were provided by teachers via a struc-
tured behavioral rating scale designed specifIcally for this purpose. These
data were collected during the 1978-1979 period, when the teachers were in
direct contact with the index children.
As will be evident in the chapters to come, we did link the units of analysis (in-
fant-mother dyads) over time, but the time span between infancy and follow-up was
not fully covered to the extent it would be in the case of a sequential cohort analysis.
However, we did attempt to capture the coverage and some of the dynamic charac-
teristics of the interval period through selection of appropriate retrospective questions
and utilization of selected enroute and mediating events that were chronicled in the
population and criminality registers.
THE FOLLOW-UP: SAMPLE, VARIABLES, AND PROCEDURES 47
Another issue that should be addressed at this point is the degree to which the
results of these analyses may be generalized. This was initially treated in chapter 1,
where comparability of the Danish, American, and Hawaiian samples was estab-
lished. However, over the longer term differences in cultural structures and functions
among initially comparable samples could yield differential patterns of predictors
and outcomes. Since our study was based on a follow-up of a single cohort, we could
not eliminate the problem of separating age, period, and cultural effects [Janson
1981]. However, this problem was addressed by constantly reflecting our fmdings
against existing theoretical notions and comparing our evidence with the evidence
derived from other cohorts and sociocultural circumstances. In addition, one of our
primary objectives was to break down some of the global variables (SES, for exam-
pie) into their constituent elements and to better understand the processes and tirne-
ordering by which these elements serve to modify or mediate long-term adolescent
and young adult outcomes. Thus, at this microlevel of analysis, our chief concern
was with differences and differential effects within a single cohort possessing defm-
able age, period, and cultural properties. While the problem remains to what extent
the process specification reached in our inquiry may be generalized to other cohorts,
the data description we provide should support more cost-effective replication stud-
ies by others.
Sample Selection Procedures
Subject Selection
The selection of mother-child pairs for the follow-up inquiry reported in chapters 5
through 9 was done in a way to maximize the chances of the 10 percent subsample
being representative of the total Danish perinatal sample. Obviously, however, the
selected subsample will be unrepresentative of some subgroups of the total perinatal
sample. For example, we clearly would not include any mother-child pair in which
one member of the pair was dead, in which the mother had never had custody of the
child, or which had left Denmark and was living abroad. These types of mother-
child pairs had to be discarded from the group from which the subject pairs would
finally be selected. The following steps were involved in the selection procedure:
1. The original collaborators of the perinatal project recorded 9,125 births.

2. The original collaborators followed up 8,364 children at age one.
3. Thus, 761 cases were lost to the sample between delivery and the first-year
follow-up. These cases were lost due to stillbirth or neonatal death (N
730) or to a variety of other causes (N = 31).
4. The Folkeregisteret search carried out in 1976 showed that an additional

1,237 cases had to be disqualified as subjects in the long-term follow-up
studies due to emigration, adoption, death of either mother or child, institu-
tional rearing, or rearing by father or foster parents. These cases were also
excluded from the sample, leaving a total of 7,127 subjects who were quali-
fied to serve as subjects in the follow-up studies.
5. The original study design called for 900 mother-child pairs to be included in
the follow-up. We decided to draw an initial sample approximately 20 per-
cent larger than planned in order to accommodate for subject loss. Previous
experience with similar studies in Denmark has shown that a 20 percent re-
fusal rate is a realistic figure. Thus, a random sample of 1,149 (mother-child
pairs) was selected as the initial subject group to be contacted and asked to
participate in the study.
Comparison Between Refusals and the Final Sample
Of the 1, 149 cases, 75 percent of those contacted agreed to take part in the project;
thus the refusal rate for the study was 20 percent, with an additional 5 percent dis-
qualified because of maternal death and emigration since last contact. In order to
establish whether the refusals differed from the study sample in terms of their distri-
bution on the independent variables under study, the two groups were compared on
selected social and familial variables obtained from the National PopUlation Register
at follow-up.
The comparisons showed that the two groups were almost identical with respect
to the following variables:
1. Mother's age at birth of index.

2. Birth order.
3. Family size.
4. Marital stability.
The comparisons suggested tendencies for the refusal group to differ from the final
sample in the following ways:
I. To have begun childbearing earlier.

2. To have been unmarried and/or in a comparatively lower SES at time of
birth.
3. To have wanted the pregnancy less.
Table 4-1 presents the distributions for two of the four variables that reflected
some differences between the groups. Examination of the table shows that the 857
Table 4-1 , Comparison of Interview Refusal Group with Final Interviewed Sample
on Selected Variables
Refusals &
Disqualified Interviewed Total
Status N % N % N %
Socioeconomic Status at Birth of Index Child

Unskilled 66 24,5 154 18.9 220 20.3
Semiskilled 45 16.7 88 10.8 133 12.3
Skilled 87 32.3 263 32.3 350 32.3
Lower office 31 11.5 107 13.2 138 12.8
Higher office 23 8.6 79 9.7 102 9.4
Lower academic 7 2.6 53 6.5 60 5.5
Higher academic 10 3.7 69 8.5 79 7.3
Total 269 100.0 813 100.0 1,082 100.0

Missing Data 23 44 67
Mother's Marital Status at Birth of Index Child

Single 103 35.4 235 27.5 338 29.5
Married 131 45.0 471 55.2 602 52.6
Separated 7 2.4 10 1.2 17 1.5
Divorced 0 0.0 6 .7 6 .5
Widowed 15 5.2 26 3.0 41 3.6
Married at delivery 34 11.7 100 11.7 134 11.7
No information 2 .3 9 .7 11 .6
Total 292 100.0 857 100.0 1,149 100.0
subjects included in the follow-up are representative of the entire range of the SES
distribution. They do, however, have a slightly lower mean SES than the general
Danish population (see figure I-I). In addition, the sample included a disproportion-
ate number of subjects whose mothers were teenagers and/or unmarried at the time
of the birth. This result was due largely to the state admission rules governing the
University Hospital at the time of the original data collection for the Danish Perinatal
Project. The rules specified that all unmarried pregnant women from the greater Co-
penhagen area were to be referred to the University Hospital for pre- and perinatal
care.
Data Sources and Collection
The majority of the data analyzed and reported in chapters 1, 2, and 3 were obtained
from the files of the Danish Perinatal Project. This entire fIle was also available for
use in the analyses reported in part n of this book. In addition, data were obtained
from the following sources:
1. Social-worker interview of mothers.

2. Teacher ratings of index children.
3. National Population Register.
4. National Police Register.
5. School health records.
6. School psychologists' records.
Social Worker Interview of the Mothers
The interview was designed to provide clinical structure to retrospective questioning

of the mother by specially trained psychiatric social workers. Current addresses for
the 1,149 subjects were obtained from the Danish National Population Register for
purposes of follow-up interviews. Information concerning the family structure vari-
ables for each subject was also obtained from the register, that is, family size and
birth-order information. Through a carefully constructed interview protocol, the
mothers were queried in their homes about the family environment during the child-
hood of the index children and more specifically about the life history and character-
istics of the index children. These interviews were approximately two hours long and
were conducted by clinical social workers who had undergone training in the admin-
istration of the interview and coding of the information obtained. The 9O-item pro-
tocol sampled the following categories:
1. Mother's work and employment history.

2. Impact of mother's work on the family.
3. Description of the family structure.
4. Husband's attitude toward her work.
5. Mother's health.
6. Role the father plays in the family.
7. Marital problems.
8. Child's school performance.
9. Child's health.
10. Sibling relationships.
Teacher Ratings of Index Children
The teacher ratings were designed to provide contemporary instructional and clinical
estimates of the children's academic progress and psychosocial development. During
the interview, pennission was requested by the social worker to contact the children's
schools and obtain information from the teachers concerning their academic and psy-
chosocial adjustment. When such pennission was obtained, the case was placed in a
separate sampling pool. Since resources precluded individual contacts of schools and
teachers by the social workers for all children, an arbitrary number of 350 mother-
child pairs were representatively drawn. The schools were contacted, and the teach-
ers who had the greatest amount of contact with the child were asked to complete a
detailed questionnaire and behavior rating scale covering both academic progress and
psychosocial adaptation. Unlike American schools, the teachers in Denmark have
many years of continuous instructional contact with the children. In most cases the
homeroom teacher completing the scales had been with the child for a period of four
to five years prior to completing the ratings. Teacher questionnaires were completed
for a total of 331 students. Table 4-2 shows the comparisons between these subjects
and those for whom no teacher data were available. The comparisons reflect no dif-
ferences in terms of social and maternal characteristics at the time of the index child's
birth or at follow-up. Thus, generalization of reported findings based on the 331
subjects to the total sample of 857 seems warranted.
Table 4-2. Comparison of the Teacher Rating Group and the Total Sample on
Selected Variables
Teacher Rating Group Total Sample*

(N = 331) (N=857)
Standard Standard
Variable Mean Deviation Mean Deviation
SES at present 2.86 1.96 2.74 1.98

Mother's education 2.55 1.95 2.57 1.97
Mother's contentment 12.82 2.22 12.53 2.43
Mother's disorderliness 13.39 1.34 12.38 1.46
Mother's health 18.74 1.96 18.69 1.97
Mother's age at birth of index 25.87 6.27 25.68 6.43
Mother's criminality .08 .37 .11 .41
Father's criminality .49 .80 .53 .83
Crowding in the home .90 .31 .91 .34
Number of family constellations 2.22 1.96 2.28 1.98
Motor development at age one 2.42 2.95 2.48 2.81
Family size 2.50 1.12 2.57 1.20
*Note that the Teacher Rating Group of 331 is also included as part of the Total Sample of 857.
National Population Register - Folkeregisteret
As described in chapter I, this register is maintained by every community in Den-

mark. By means of these registers throughout the country, an individual can be
traced through all changes of address and changes in marital status and information
about parents, children, and siblings can be derived. This constitutes a prospective
data base accumulated over time on a standard set of items, but collected and codi-
fied by us at the time of follow-up.
National Police Register
Data on delinquency and criminality pertaining to the index children and their par-
ents were collected from the National Police Register of Denmark. This material is,
of course, extremely confidential and was made available to us through special clear-
ance by the Danish Ministry of Justice. The information on criminality is coded in
terms of type of crime and type of punishment. In the construction of the coding
systems (one for children and one for adults), we were advised by a Danish crimi-
nologist, Preben Wolf, at the University of Copenhagen. The data items included
relate to the frequency of occurrence and severity of offenses in several categories.
Further elaboration of the use of the register may be found in chapter 8.
School Health Record of Index Children
All Danish children are seen once a year by a physician, who keeps a continuous
record of each child's growth and health status during the school years. These records
were collected on the total follow-up sample of 857 subjects. The primary use of
these records was to obtain the data items related to the cumulative growth of the
index children at ages 7 and 12. See chapter 7, especially.
School Psychologists' Records on Index Children
Approximately 30 percent of Danish school children are seen by a school psycholo-

gist. The records for all the cases seen by a school psychologist were collected. In
this study we restricted our interest to whether the index children were ever referred
and for what reasons.
Sample Groups Used in the Analyses
It is necessary to consider the sample as consisting of a set of subsamples of varying

sizes, each determined by the number of subjects with data available on a given set
of outcome variables, Comparisons of the subsamples on selected variables with the

total sample of mother interviews clearly indicates that the subsamples are represen-
tative of the total sample,
The subsamples used in the analyses are listed below:
1, Follow-up data from mother interview, N = 857,

2, Follow-up data from mother interview and the National Criminality Register,
N = 857,
3, Follow-up data with all of the above and the school-physician data (including
cases of referral to school psychologist), N = 716,
4, Follow-up data with all of the above plus data from the teacher questionnaire,
N = 331.
Development of Maternal Status and Adolescent Outcome

Scales
Many of the antecedent and mediating environmental, family structure, and medical
variables taken from the data sources described above were single data items and are
adequately defined in the chapters in which they appear (for example, family size
and divorce), However, the development of an array of important maternal status
and adolescent outcome scales needs to be described here to avoid the necessity for
duplication in later chapters,
Twelve of the 20 scales analyzed in chapters 5 through 9 are scale scores mea-
suring adolescent outcomes that were derived from the mother's interview by the
social worker and from the teacher questionnaire. Two scales were based on combi-
nations of individual data items obtained from the interview with the mother, and 10
scales were based on the teacher questionnaire. The remaining eight scales were
derived from the mother interview and represent measures of maternal characteristics
or status.
Through exploratory factor analyses, as well as logical analyses, many data items
contained in the teacher questionnaire and mother interview were organized into re-
liable scales. The scales constructed were additive and assumed to be equal interval.
Factor scores were not used. This follows the recommendation of several authors
[Wainer 1976; Winer 1978], who note that the low reliability of coefficients in linear
models greatly reduces the usefulness of using factor loadings when constructing
scales. Each scale was subjected to a test of item internal reliability subsequent to
construction. Thus, for each variable an internal consistency reliability analysis was
completed and subsequently modified when necessary. The scales were analyzed
using the reliability subprogram of SPSS [Nie, Hull, Jenkins, Steinbrenner, & Bent
1976]. Subsequent to an initial analysis, items were considered for exclusion from
the scale if they were detrimental to the homogeneity of the scale as a whole. Item-
to-scale correlations and alpha coefficients were used as measures of each scale's
homogeneity. In those cases in which a number of measures empirically contributed
to a scale, the scale was limited to the most homogeneous items because additional
measures would not contribute substantially to increased reliability.
Scales Derived from Mother Interview
The 9O-item structured interview protocol administered by trained social workers

was designed to acquire information related to a wide range of social and environ-
mental characteristics. The interviews were completed when the children ranged in
age from 17 to 19 years. Following are the scales, including cryptic notations of the
items and the alpha coefficients of reliability:
No. of
Scale Items Alpha
l. Mother's contentment (e.g., acceptance of the family situation) 5 .77
2. Mother's orderliness (e.g., grooming and home appearance) 4 .80
3. Mother's overall health (e.g., array of diagnosed physical 13 .57
problems)
4. Mother's recurrent symptoms (e.g., array of symptoms 8 .54
suggesting psychogenic causation)
5. Mother's problems with working due to children (e.g., child 2 .50
illness and day care)
6. Mother's employment instability (e.g., employment 3 .72
characterized by promotion, demotion, or stagnation)
7. Conflict with husband due to work (e.g., Does husband want 2 .51
mother to have job?)
8. Child's academic performance (e.g., mother's perception of 5 .77
such things as the child's math and gymnastics performances)
9. Child's school problems (e.g., mother's description of child's 4 .52
overall adjustment to school)
10. Family dissension (e.g., disagreements over child raising, 8 .78
economy, sex, etc.).
Scales Derived from Teacher Ratings of Child
The teacher questionnaire was also administered when the index children were be-
tween 17 and 19 years old. Its purpose was to obtain judgments of the child's intel-
lectual, emotional, and social functioning by the teacher, who in each case was most
familiar with the child. These constituted the outcome variables used in later
chapters.
The fonnat and content of the items included in the questionnaire were influenced
initially by published questionnaires and scales currently used to measure various
child and adolescent characteristics. These include The Child Behavior Rating Scale
[Cassell 1962], the Bristol Social Adjustment Guides [Stott & Marston 1970], the
Devereux Adolescent Behavior Rating Scale [Spivack, Spotts, & Haimes 1967], and
Burk's Behavior Rating Scale [Burk 1975].
'The following 11 scales, four relating to academic perfonnance and cognitive
ability, and seven relating to aspects of the child's psychosocial adjustment, derived
from the teacher questionnaire, were used in the analyses reported here:
No. of
Academic Scales Items Alpha
1. Mathematics proficiency (e.g., numerical and computational 2 .95
skills)
2. Reading proficiency (e.g., vocabulary and reading skills) 3 .90
3. Work organization skills (e.g., work well organized, neat) 5 .88
4. Reasoning skills (e.g., abstract thinking and logical approach) 2 .88
Psychosocial Scales
5. Emotionality (e.g., highly sensitive to criticism and is often 5 .86
moody)
6. Peer relations (e.g., has many friends and is never teased by 7 .75
other children)
7. Aggression (e.g., bullies other children) 3 .81
8. Impulsivity (e.g., behavior is unpredictable and talks before 6 .81
ideas are formed)
9. Self-serving assertiveness (e.g., competitive and domineering) 4 .75
10. Social responsibility (e.g., responsible and helpful) 6 .90
11. Withdrawal (e.g., often daydreams and appears shy) 5 .76
Justification for Using Teacher Judgments of Adolescent

Performance
The use of teacher ratings of student academic performance was both necessary and
desirable. It was necessary because psychometrically adequate and equable aca-
demic perfonnance measures were unavailable in the Danish sample. However, use
of teacher ratings was desirable on technical grounds, at least for the purposes to be
served in this type of inquiry. Our interest was not discrimination with a diagnostic
or achievement deficit orientation; rather, it was descriptive with a skills-accomplish-
ment orientation, anchored in the instruction actually received by the child. Since the
purpose of standardized measures is to discriminate among students, use of some
form of a proficiency rating or measure that is aligned with classroom instruction
provides a more adequate assessment of school-related achievement [Milazzo and

Buchanan 1982]. Further, standardized measures used for assessing student perfor-
mance across different instructional settings and programs suffer from noninstruc-
tional contamination (for example, socioeconomic status). Again, where
assessments are desired that are sensitive primarily to school-related influences, care
should be taken to select observations or instruments that closely match the instruc-
tion transacted [Hanson, Schutz, & Bailey 1981].
Research reporting the use of both teacher ratings and standardized measures pro-
vides additional justification for the approach used in our inquiry. A study reported
by Airasian, Kellaghan, Madaus, and Pedulla [1977] showed correlations between
standardized measures of reading and mathematics and teacher ratings of both out-
comes of .59 and .60, respectively. The teacher ratings were completed without any
prior knowledge of the standardized test results. Thus, it seems plausible that a por-
tion of the variance not shared by the two assessment procedures might be attributed
to the elimination of some of the noninstructional contaminants through the use of
teacher ratings. The Airasian et al. results are mirrored in the results of a study con-
ducted by Eysenck and Cookson [1970]. Where both standardized achievement
measures and teacher ratings were used with the same sample, identical results were
obtained with both measures.
Teacher ratings of observed child behavior have also proven useful in nonintellec-
tual areas. Mednick and Schulsinger [19681 successfully used teacher ratings to dis-
criminate between groups known to be at high and low risk for mental health
problems. Similarly, Werner and Smith [1982] found teacher ratings to reliably dis-
criminate among the offspring of mothers possessing various types of psychological
problems.
The critical element in the development of reliable teacher rating instruments for
both intellectual and nonintellectual areas is that the behavioral properties of the
items have to be specified with such clarity that teachers can observe them directly
with a minimum of interpretation. Of course, item and scale validity concerns re-
main a function of proper content specification and empirical verification.
Treatment of the Antecedent and Mediating Variables
The overall purpose of the follow-up inquiry was to determine the impact of a group
of carefully documented perinatal and infant variables and a series of sociodemo-
graphic, family structure, and maternal variables on the lives of a 1959-1961 Danish
birth cohort. The perinatal and infant variables were drawn from the original data
bank of the Danish Perinatal Study and are fully described in chapters 1,2, and 3.
The major sociodemographic, family structure, and maternal variables analyzed

in our inquiry may be listed or grouped as follows:
1, Mother's age at the time of marriage,

2, Mother's age at the birth of her first child,
3, Characteristics of the mother and her life situation,
4, Marital dissolutions and remarriages.
5. Family dissension.
6. Birth order and spacing of children in the family.
7. Size of the family.
8. Sex of children in the family.
9. Unwanted childbearing.
10. Social and work roles of parents.
11. Child-rearing practices.
In thinking about what one might want from analyses of the voluminous amount
of information available, one must recognize that many of the data items collected in
this kind of long-term prospective study often do not constitute the actual etiological
variables. Rather, they constitute structural, status, or marker variables that if prop-
erly analyzed in their embedding contexts, might lead to the identification of those
variables or processes that explain the specified outcomes of interest. Researcher
attitudes as well as the analytic strategies used must be quite different from those
normally associated with traditional descriptive or experimental studies. While the
data items available do indeed mark observable events or structurally define condi-
tions, their meaning is dependent upon the ability of the researcher to reflect them
against the contemporary cultural milieu and extant theoretical propositions regard-
ing underlying processes.
In the series of analyses described in the following chapters, we repeatedly under-
score the importance in this kind of developmental research of looking for the under-
lying psychosocial mechanisms of any observed relationships between status and
outcome variables. For example, as implied earlier, socioeconomic status or divorce
does not cause anything per se. They are best interpreted as container or marker
variables that are surrounded by unmeasured psychological and sociological covar-
iates that directly influence the outcomes. This view is supported by White [1982],
who presented the idea that the power ascribed to SES as a predictor of academic
achievement has been vastly overestimated. Instead, the important contributions are
made by characteristics of the home environment that are correlated with such eco-
nomic indices. Bronfenbrenner [1974, 1979] concurs that simply stating that a given
group of subjects is from low SES provides only a label for an environmental con-
text, leaving the nature unspecified. Consequently, only highly speculative infer-
ences can be made concerning the processes through which any observed
developmental outcomes may have emerged.
Our ultimate interest in the identification of comparatively less global environ-
mental influences on adolescent and early adult outcomes is of course based, in part
at least, on the heuristic value it may have for research in the area of environmental
intervention programs. Thus, environmental variables that are closer to the elements
that are amenable to manipulation or influence would be of particular interest.
We hope that the inquiry reported here will make a contribution to the literature.
We have designed and collected (for the most part, prospectively) an elaborate set of
antecedent and mediating variables on a single birth cohort covering a two-decade
period, and have analyzed their independent and mediated association with multiple
outcomes representing adolescent academic and psychosocial development. We
have attempted to determine the degree to which the influence often attributed to
global or marker variables (for example, SES and divorce) may instead be partially
a function of a more specific set of environmental variables. By positioning and
partitioning the myriad of variables for analysis on the basis of existing theory and
empirical findings reported in the literature, we have attempted to tease out infer-
ences relevant to the possible underlying processes. The extensive time period cov-
ered, data items available, and multiple outcomes measured on the cohort provide a
strong basis for accomplishing our objectives.
5 DIVORCE AND FAMILY
INSTABILITY
The stability of the nuclear family in the United States has become more vulnerable
over the past two decades, and most signs point to increasing instability during the
next decade. The country's divorce rate doubled between 1965 and 1978. In 1978
there were 4.8 million children under 18 years of age living with a divorced parent.
Currently, over one million children experience the divorce of their parents each
year. With no dramatic increase in the rate, it is estimated that 45 percent of the
children born in 1977 will reside in a one-parent family sometime before 1995, when
they will reach their 18th birthday [Everly 1977; Glick 1978, 1979; Hetherington
1981; lellinek & Slovik 1981].
In view of the pervasiveness of marital dissolution, it has become a social imper-
ative that we attempt to describe the complexities of the condition itself and better
understand the consequences for children and society. Operationally, this means de-
scribing divorce in terms of its defining characteristics - that is, different combina-
tions of pre- and post divorce family structure, economic and emotional stress
components - and reflecting them against a range of child outcomes. Research ef-
forts directed toward this goal constitute the minimum essential background for de-
signing improved alternative support mechanisms for the children involved. It
should be emphasized that the purpose of the inquiry is not to develop an argument
This chapter was written in collaboration with Charlotte Reznick.
59
against divorce. Rather, it is to increase our sensitivity to the consequences of chang-

ing societal attitudes toward divorce and to ensure that the family support elements
lost in the divorce process are somehow properly installed elsewhere in the child's
life.
In the first part of this chapter we present a review of the literature on the effects
of divorce and family instability on children's academic and psychosocial develop-
ment. In general, the existing literature underscores the fact that the divorce experi-
ence is associated with considerable stress to the child and at an aggregated level
results in a variety of negative consequences. Next, from the review of related liter-
ature we identify a set of variables that are related to those elements that appear to be
associated with the child's ability to adapt to parental divorce. The variables are then
subsequently redefined in terms of our data base for systematic examination.
The analyses reported in this chapter deal with the impact of parental divorce in
the follow-up sample of the Danish perinatal cohort. More specifically, the reports
of our analyses will focus on the association between several dimensions of nonin-
tactness of the home and children's adjustment and progress in school as judged by
the teacher. The outcomes of interest are academic achievement, specifically reading
and mathematics, and, in the psychosocial domain, measures of aggression and
withdrawal. While the analyses do not respond to all definitional and methodological
questions raised in the review of existing research, they do address those for which
the Danish data base are most suitable.
The Impact of Divorce on the Child
The literature on the impact of divorce on children is conflicting. Many empirical

studies have demonstrated that children of divorced, separated, or mother-alone fam-
ilies exhibit a greater degree of maladaptive behavior and poorer academic perfor-
mance than do children from intact homes [Anthony 1974; Biller 1974; Herzog &
Sudia 1973; Hetherington & Deur 1971; Hetherington & Martin 1979; Kellam, Ens-
minger, & Turner 1977; McDermott 1968; Shinn 1978; Sorosky 1977; Touiliatos &
Lindholm 1980]. Most clinical studies depict children of divorce as highly, though
often temporarily, distressed [Kalter 1977; McDermott 1968; Morrison 1974; Sugar
1970; Tuckman & Regan 1966; Wallerstein & Kelly 1980; Westman 1970). How-
ever, across both empirical and clinical inquiries the observed strength of the influ-
ence of divorce on child outcomes has shown considerable variability, and in some
empirical studies has even failed to reach statistical significance [Shinn 1978].
DIVORCE AND FAMILY INSTABILITY 61
Effects on Psychosocial Behavior
Recent studies of primary-grade children of divorce have reported more acting-out

problems, lower frustration tolerance, and poorer personal resources to cope with
school regulations [Feiner, Ginter, Boike, & Cowen 1981; FeIner, Stolberg, &
Cowen 1975]. Similarly, using teacher ratings of fifth-grade boys, Santrock [1977]
reported more aggressive and disobedient behaviors in boys whose fathers were not
present. These findings were further supported in a controlled laboratory situation by
Montare and Boone [1980]. Little has been written, however, regarding the relation-
ship between divorce and behavioral patterns characterized by increased "with-
drawal," although many studies report depression in children following divorce (for
example, Wallerstein and Kelly [1980]).
Effects on Cognitive Variables and Measures of Academic

Achievement
Shinn's [1978] thorough review of the literature reported that the majority of studies
showed detrimental effects of father absence on children's intellectual performance,
in spite of some recognized methodological concerns. For example, Blanchard and
Biller [1971] found third-grade academic performance in boys from father-present
homes to be superior. Ferri's [1976] study of 10,000 British children tested at 7 and
II years indicated more academic progress in children from intact homes, even with
SES controlled. In contrast, Broman, Nichols, and Kennedy [1975], analyzing the
American Collaborative Perinatal Project data, found that while there was a lower
mean IQ score for the father-absent group, the difference disappeared when SES was
controlled.
More recently, Rosenthal and Hansen [19801, in a study involving junior-high-
school students, found that those children living in two-parent homes earned signifi-
cantly higher grades than those in single-parent homes. The statistical procedures
used indicated no interactions with sex, grade, school, maternal employment, level
of mother's education, or intactness of family. Also, controlling for all of the above
variables did not eliminate the differences between the two groups. Their interpreta-
tion of the findings did not imply that the attendant maternal and family variables did
not have an influence, only that a significant portion of the variance that remained
must be attributed to the two-parent family configuration. Svanum, Bringle, and
McLaughlin [1982] also investigated the effects of father absence on achievement
scores (reading and math scores on WRAT) and IQ test scores (vocabulary and block
design subtests of WISC) in a nationally representative sample of 6- to ll-year-olds.
The results showed depressed achievement test performance for black and white
children from father-absent homes compared to the father-present group, and lower
IQ scores for whites in father-absent homes. However, when SES was controlled,
the significant differences disappeared in both cases.
General Short-Term Effects
There are few well-designed studies that directly examine the experience and behav-
ior of children as their parents go through separation and divorce. The two most
influential projects on the short-term impact of divorce were conducted by Hether-
ington, Cox, and Cox and Wallerstein and Kelly. Hetherington, Cox, and Cox
[1976, 1978, 1979a, b, c]looked intensively at the first two years following divorce
and documented severe stress and disorganization experienced by families in the first
year after divorce. The children of divorced parents showed much more negative
behavior than did children in nondivorced families: they tended to show less affec-
tion and less compliance, made more dependency demands, and exhibited more nag-
ging and whining behaviors. In addition, the effects were more intense and enduring
for boys than for girls; two years after divorce the effects had largely disappeared for
girls. Similarly, McDermott [1968] found that young boys (3 to 5 years) were also
more affected than young girls by their parents' divorce.
Consistent with the Hetherington et al. fmdings, Wallerstein and Kelly [1974,
1975, 1976, 1980] and Kelly and Wallerstein [1975, 1976] found that the first year
after divorce was a most stressful and critical time and that parenting capacities often
deteriorated during that time. A major contribution of these two projects was that
several outcomes for children of different ages were studied at various postdivorce
stages. For many children and adolescents, the separation and its aftermath was the
most stressful period in their lives.
At the 18-month follow-up, a majority of youngsters who were under stress had
resumed their early normal developmental pace. However, a rather significant mi-
nority of the children continued on a downward course compared to their overall
functioning before the separation and had not yet begun to recover their earlier de-
velopmental stride.
At the five-year follow-up, over one-third of the children were still quite unhappy
and emotionally in need of support, and many were actually failing in significant
areas of adjustment. Poor learning, delinquency, apathy, anger, and restlessness were
among the behaviors noted. Similar to the findings of Hetherington et al., boys were
found to be more vulnerable to these ill effects than were girls.
The Wallerstein and Kelly studies also suggest that it is not only the act of divorce
that is critical, but that what happens before, during, and after the divorce has a great
influence on the adjustment and development of the child. If we consider divorce as

a process, then these early effects can be considered to set off a chain of events that
can have an additive effect on long-term outcomes.
Long-Term Effects
Unfortunately, there has been little research on the long-term effects on children of
parental divorce. From two national survey samples (1957 and 1976), Kulka and
Weingarten [1979] looked at long-term effects on the adult adjustment of approxi-
mately 4,000 people. Their most important finding was that adults from divorced
backgrounds had a greater tendency to identify childhood or adolescence as the most
unhappy time of their lives. This result suggests that the impact of parental divorce
as a stressful event endures throughout one's lifetime and, however subtly, might
exert an influence on an individual's pattern of responding to, evaluating, and order-
ing the adult life role.
Methodological and Conceptual Issues
Defining the Broken Home
As suggested in the discussion of the literature, the empirical and clinical research
has yielded conflicting findings and results of questionable validity because of meth-
odological and conceptual problems [Levitin 1979]. First, the literature is plagued
by differences in the definition of what a broken home is. For example, generaliza-
tions made about the effect that father absence has on a child usually assumes a
simple but gross dichotomy between "broken" and "intact" homes. The definition
of "intactness" ranges from homes in which both natural parents are present to
homes in which divorce has occurred but one of the natural parents has remarried.
Thus, stepparents are sometimes included under intact homes and at other times un-
der broken homes [Herzog & Sudia 1973]. Also, most of the literature has ignored
the fact that there are different types of "broken" families, and the possibility exists
that different structures have different impacts on children growing up in them. Sim-
ilarly, many early studies did not distinguish whether the father's absence from a
broken home was due to death, divorce, or some other cause or whether it was a
temporary or permanent state. Another problem is that broken families have been
seen as a rather homogeneous group, with single-parent status as the most critical
homogenizing factor. This conceptualization ignores other differences in the broken
home that define the specific nature of the break.
Identifying the Mediating Variables
Treating broken homes as if each one possessed homogeneous characteristics disre-

gards a variety of mediating factors that differentially impact on child outcomes
[Levitin 1979]. Shinn [1978], for example, recognized numerous mediating vari-
ables that should be taken into account in research conducted in this area. Some of
these variables can be defined as modifiers of the independent variable, such as the
reason for the nonintact family, the age of child at the time of the break-up, and
duration of the nonintact situation. Others include social variables, such as socioec-
onomic status, economic hardship, and lower maternal education, that are known to
be correlated with the nonintact family situation. These variables, rather than nonin-
tactness itself, may be the primary cause of an observed relationship.
In addition, Shinn called attention to a category of variables describing the atmos-
phere of the postdivorce home, such as the stability of the home and the quality of
the involvement of the adults. Involvement here was defined as the availability of
the parents for one-to-one interaction with the child and the quality of parental super-
vision. There is empirical evidence that nonintact homes tend to be rated lower on
measures of these variables, at least in comparison to intact homes. Thus, the post-
divorce environment might mediate some of the negative effects associated with di-
vorce. A similar case could be made for the influence of the predivorce emotional
stress level of the deteriorating household.
As a general summary statement, Shinn suggested that in order to significantly
advance our current knowledge about the impact of divorce on children, research is
needed that systematically examines all the correlates of parental separation. Only
through such research will the current controversies be reconciled. Reconciliation in
this instance simply alludes to the probability that the samples of nonintact families
used in the several studies may not have possessed homogeneous characteristics as
defined by the correlates of divorce. If this were the case, one would expect incon-
sistent findings across studies.
Hetherington [1981] observed that over time the custodial parent (usually the
mother) becomes increasingly important in the development of the child from a di-
vorced home. Even though the noncustodial father remains highly involved, his in-
fluence will become less than that of the custodial mother. This further emphasizes
the importance of examining the variability in the postdivorce environment, specifi-
cally as it is manifested in the individual characteristics of the custodial parent. In a
study by Bloom, Asher, and White [1978], divorced adults were found to have more
health and emotional problems, even after the initial crisis had passed. According to
Hetherington [19811, this finding suggests that children from nonintact homes are
more likely to be coping with a mother who is confronted by many stresses for which
she is psychologically and physically ill-equipped to deal. Thus, in addition to re-
search describing the influence of the already-mentioned factors, studies specifically
dealing with maternal characteristics and adaptability as they relate to the recovery
of children from parental divorce are clearly needed.
The timing of parental divorce in the child's life is also a crucial factor when
considering child outcomes. Many studies have made implicit as well as explicit
references to the importance of timing of the parental divorce in the child's life [Kal-
ter & Rembar 1981; Rohrlich, Ramier, & Berg-Cross 1977]. Shinn's [1978] review
reported varied patterns and inconsistent results. For example, in evaluating 500 psy-
chiatric reports, Kalter and Rembar [1981] found that although timing of divorce was
not related to the overall level of adjustment, timing was associated with the specific
nature of the child's difficulties.
Wallerstein and Kelly [1980] reported that although preschool children were the
most emotionally upset 18 months after the separation, on the average the younger
children and adolescents appeared to be coping better than the latency-aged (5-11
years) children four years after separation. However, Wallerstein and Kelly also
noted great variability in the school behavior of latency-aged children following sep-
aration, with some children experiencing severe academic disruptions and others
manifesting heightened academic motivation and achievement after restabilization of
the family unit.
The literature seems to reflect three different perspectives regarding the timing of
the divorce process: the "cumulative effect" hypothesis, the "critical stage" hypoth-
esis, and the "recency" hypothesis [Kalter and Rembar 1981]. Proponents of the
cumulative-effect hypothesis maintain that the earlier the parental divorce occurs in
a child's life, the more profound its impact will be [Gardner 1977; Hetherington
1966, 1972]. The critical-stage hypothesis has been supported in the literature pri-
marily by those with a psychoanalytic viewpoint [McDermott 1968; Neubauer 1960;
Westman 1972]. The recency position is taken by those who see divorce as a trauma
for children, but one from which the youngster can recover relatively quickly (within
a year or two). This theory has received some support when looking at the average
case, but may not be generalized to all children [Hetherington, Cox, & Cox 1976,
1978; Kelly & Wallerstein 1976; Wallerstein & Kelly 1974, 1975, 1976]. In general,
results from studies examining the effects of a child's age at the time of divorce have
been inconsistent. Nevertheless, age continues to be of interest and merits careful
consideration in future investigations [Emery 1982].
The Need for a Longitudinal Perspective
A large proportion of the divorce literature is represented by cross-sectional designs

using clinic populations and thus is subject to a wide range of biases [Emery 1982].
For example, families who are either self-selected because they have sought treat-
ment or who have been referred to the clinic because of problems with their children
may not be representative of divorced homes in the general population. Of even more
importance is that the cross-sectional nature of most studies of clinic populations
eliminates their ability to systematically analyze children's adaptability to divorce as
a continuing process. Cross-sectional comparison of children from homes at a given
point in time is likely to result in [mdings that are difficult to interpret, making com-
parisons across studies almost impossible. For example, if the distribution of time
elapsed since the family breakup is not similar in the divorced groups of the compar-
ison studies, a substantial difference in results will likely occur. Also, if such things
as aggressivity are measured at different ages within the two groups, the develop-
mental nature of the construct will make interpretations difficult and comparisons
impossible. Clearly, the type of study conducted by Wallerstein and Kelly [1975,
1976] and by Hetherington et al. [1976, 1978, 1979], in which families representa-
tive of a defined social milieu are followed longitudinally after their breakup, reflects
a preferable methodology for research in this area. The value of this type of study
could be even greater if the follow-ups were extended to cover a longer period of
time and if more varied social backgrounds were represented by the subjects.
We would like to emphasize that although the cross-sectional studies of clinic
populations are vulnerable to criticism, they constitute a significant contribution to
the research in this area. The data obtained from such studies provide a rich source
of information for use in formulating hypotheses to be tested in further research.
Scope of the Analyses of the Danish Cohort
In the analyses examining the consequences of parental divorce for the children in
the Danish sample, an attempt was made to treat several of the methodological and
conceptual issues raised in the literature.
Representativeness of the Subjects
The sample used for these analyses included all subjects for whom teacher ratings
were available. The nonintact families consisted of all those who started out as an
intact family at the birth of the index child and experienced a divorce at any time
during the total span of the study. The intact comparison group consisted of all fam-
ilies who remained intact during the total period. Since the sample was drawn ran-
domly without regard to marital status, and since nonintact status could be achieved
at any time during the 18 to 20 years, it is likely that any consequential selection
biases were avoided in the identification of our divorced group.
Identification of Modifier and Mediating Variables
In the analyses of the relationship between divorce and long-tenn child outcomes,
clarification of the additive and/or interactive influences of SES, mother's education,
and sex was emphasized. In addition, models were tested that determined the resid-
ual strength of any observed association between parental divorce and an outcome
when controls were imposed for these variables. Finally, any suggested interaction
between intactness and each of these variables was identified.
As noted previously, the influence of personal characteristics of the custodial par-
ent has been identified as an area in need of further research. Rutter [1978] found a
relationship between maternal neurotic depression and acting-out behavior in off-
spring. For the present study the Rutter variable was approximated by our maternal
contentment scale. In addition to maternal contentment, a similarly constructed
mother's orderliness scale was included along with the other potentially confounding
variables. The mother's orderliness scale is a measure of the structure and order the
mother creates in her child's physical environment. A more complete description of
this and other variables may be found in chapter 4.
The stability of the postdivorce home environment was analyzed as a possible
mediator of negative long-tenn correlates of divorce. Stability was measured by the
number of changes in adult constellations in the home after the initial breakup.
Subjects
The intact group consisted of all families in which mother, child, and father resided
together until the 18-year follow-up, either alone as a nuclear unit or for a partial
period with grandparents or other relatives. If the child was in a hospital or at a
boarding school for part of the time or during the late teen years lived with a room-
mate, it was not considered to affect "intactness." The intact group also included a
small number of families with stepfathers who were already in the home within the
first year of the child's life, when the critical parent-child attachment fonns [Ains-
worth 1973]. The divorced group included all families who started out intact but
subsequently experienced at least one break after which the biological father was no
longer in the home.
Outcome Variables
The outcome variables examined were the subjects' scores on scales based on
teacher judgments: reading proficiency, math proficiency, aggressive behavior, and
withdrawal behavior. Chapter 4 includes a description of the construction of the

scales. The subjects' scores were divided into three categories representing absolute
descriptions: low, middle, and high. It should be emphasized that the category as-
signments were based on what would actually constitute high, middle, or low, and
not simply on a distribution division.
Analyses
A set of five log-linear analyses were performed for each of the four outcomes. Since
the sample size precluded elaborate model testing, the intact-nonintact factor and
each outcome factor were analyzed in separate three-factor tables that included the
series of mediating variables (for example, SES, mother's contentment, and so
forth). Selected graphs portraying the relationships are presented along with the
results.
Our initial analysis showed that divorced homes were significantly related to neg-
ative effects when all outcomes are considered simultaneously. Furthermore, if a
child came from a home where the parents divorced any time between the child's
birth and 18 years, the child would be more likely to have lower academic achieve-
ment in the areas of reading and math and display more behavior problems either by
acting out aggressively or by withdrawing. The data shown in table 5-1 summarize
the results when only the independent effects of intactness are considered. The re-
mainder of the results section will analyze what happens when additional correlated
variables are taken into account.
Timing of Divorce
The analyses conducted for our purposes did not address directly any of the three
hypotheses reviewed earlier, that is, the cumulative, critical-period, and recency hy-
potheses. However, they did focus attention on the relationship between the age pe-
riod(s) in which divorce was experienced and adolescent academic and psychosocial
outcomes. In one set of analyses the total sample of children was assigned to
subgroups based on when in their lives a divorce occurred. Three age periods were
identified: 0--4, 5-11, and 12 through adolescence. If no divorce occurred in a time
period, a 0 (stable) was assigned; if a divorce occurred, a 1 (unstable) was assigned.
Thus, there were eight possibilities ranging from 0-0--0 (intact throughout) to 1-1-1
(experienced at least one constellation change in each period). The always-stable
group (0-0--0) was set aside, and a series of log-linear analyses were completed for
the remaining seven groups, combining selected mediating variables with instability
patterns and outcomes.
Table 5-1. Percentage of Subjects by Outcome Status and Family Intactness
% Intact % Nonintact % of Total

Outcome Status (N= 135) (N=138) (N=273)*
Remedial reading problems 16 28 22

Remedial math problems 24 38 30
High aggression 9 20 15
High withdrawal 14 37 26
*The reduction in the total number of subjects with teacher ratings was due to casewise deletion
of subjects with missing questionnaire data and the exclusion of cases born to never-married women.
Essentially, the results indicated that with the exception of the reading proficiency
outcome, timing was not associated with adolescent outcomes. In the analyses of
reading, the timing pattern had a statistically significant independent association that
held up when controls were imposed for SES and mother's education. Any group
that experienced instability during the age period 0-4 years tended to have a higher
incidence of reading difficulties. This was true irrespective of additional divorce ex-
perienced during other age periods. While not statistically significant, the same trend
was noted for mathematics. No trend was observed for either aggression or with-
drawal. Also of interest was that the always-stable group (0--0--0) had about the same
proportion of reading problems (16 percent) as the nonintact group (0--1-0) that ex-
perienced instability during the latency period only (19 percent), which was the non-
intact cell with the fewest problems.
These findings are not immediately reconcilable with those of Wallerstein and
Kelly [1980], who found that children experiencing divorce during the latency period
showed the slowest and most incomplete recovery. However, the discrepancy of
these two sets of findings may be due to the difference in length of follow-up period:
5 years vs. through late adolescence. The shortage of studies relevant to the influence
of timing of divorce makes further speculation unwarranted.
Divorce and Aggressive Behavior
Sex. Divorce was associated with aggressive behavior for both males and females.
More aggression was seen in boys and girls from broken homes than in those from
intact homes.
Socioeconomic Status. Both SES and nonintactness showed significant indepen-

dent relationships with aggression. When controlling for SES, nonintactness re-
mained an important factor in aggressive behavior. More aggressive behavior was
observed in the low and middle SES categories for both groups; the most dramatic
increase from intact to nonintact was also found in these two SES groups. High
social class was associated with the least aggressive behavior and did not seem to be
affected by intactness (see figure 5-1).
Mother Characteristics. Divorce and maternal education level were both inde-
pendently and significantly related to aggression; each remained significant when
controls were imposed for the other. The results suggested that high mother educa-
tion somewhat mutes the influence of broken homes; that is, if a mother had a high
education level, there was no significant difference in child aggressiveness between
the intact and nonintact home (8 percent vs. 11 percent). However, there was a large
difference in child aggression when the mother had less than an eighth-grade educa-
tion (9 percent in the intact vs. 22 percent in the nonintact; see figure 5-2).
Although there was a definite trend toward higher aggression when the mothers
were less content, these differences were not statistically significant. Nor was the
mother's orderliness measure significantly associated with a child's aggressive
behavior.
Effects of Divorce on Withdrawal Behavior
Sex. No sex differences were found in the analyses of withdrawal; divorce was
related to withdrawal irrespective of the sex of the child. Girls seemed to react as
70
65 63
60 59
55
Low
50 45 46 AggreSSion
45
;: 40
II>
~
II> 35
a..
30 27
25
25~
22
20
High
15
Aggr~SSiOn
10
5
SES Low Mid High Low Mid High

(N~21) (N~69) (N~35) (N~46) (N~59) (N~14)
Intact Non·lnlact
(N~ 135) (N~ 138)
Figure 5-1. Percentage of High and Low Aggression by SES and Family Intactness
70
65 62
60
54
55
50
49
45
<:Cb 40 42
~ 35
Cb
Cl..
30 29
25
22
20
20
15
10 9.
!. __ 9
5 High Aggression
Mother's Low High Total Low High Total

Education IN =85) IN=47) IN= 132) IN = 107) IN =28) IN = 135)
Intact Non·lntact
IN= 132) IN= 135)
Figure 5-2. Percentage of High and Low Aggression by Mother's Education and
Family Intactness
much as boys to the divorce situation (contrary to some earlier findings in studies of
short-term consequences). An increase from 14 to 38 percent (intact to nonintact)
was noted in high-withdrawal-behavior males and from 14 to 37 percent for females.
SES. Whereas nonintactness was significantly associated with high withdrawal,

SES did not reflect any systematic relationship. High SES children from nonintact
families showed a comparatively smaller but not statistically significant increase in
withdrawal behavior as compared with children from low and middle SES (see figure
5-3).
Mother Characteristics. Mother's education was significantly related to with-

drawal. As shown in figure 5-4, both intactness and maternal education remained
significant when controlled for the other. Whereas the overall percentage of subjects
with higher withdrawal increased as a function of nonintactness, the increase was
higher for the group whose mothers possessed low educational backgrounds. Again,
the mother's contentment and mother's orderliness measures did not contribute ad-
ditive effects beyond that of the divorce factor.
Effects of Divorce on Reading Achievement
Sex. Divorce showed a negative association with reading proficiency for both
males and females (16 percent vs 28 percent for poor readers in intact homes and
40 37
~
35
30
tQ)
~23
25
~ 20
Q)
a.. 15 15
15
10 ~
5

(N=21) (N=69) (N=35) (N = 46) (N = 59) (N = 14)
Intact Non·lntact
(N = 135) (N = 138)
Figure 5-3. Percentage of High Withdrawal by SES and Family Intactness
broken homes, respectively). No sex difference in reading performance was ob-

served; the increase in the percentage of poor readers as a function of divorce was
the same for both sexes (see figure 5-5).
Socioeconomic Status. Both intactness and SES were significantly related to read-
ing achievement. However, the independent effect of intactness washed out when
SES was controlled; the SES effect held up when controls were imposed on intact-
ness. Thus, SES appears to be an important mediator of the relationship between
intactness of the family and reading achievement in this sample.
50
45
40
35 39~37
<:: 30
Q) 32
l2
Q)
25
a.. 20 19
15
10 '2~'4
5

Education (N=85) (N=47) (N= 132) (N=109) (N=28) (N=137)
Intact Non·lntact
(N= 132) (N = 137)
Figure 5-4. Percentage of High Withdrawal by Mother's Education and Family

Intactness
Mother's Education. A similar phenomenon occurred when analyzing mother's

education level. Initially, both divorce and mother's education showed significant
effects on reading achievement; there was a significant increase in poor readers in
the nonintact group (16 percent vs. 28 percent). However, in testing the models with
controls, only the mother's education effect held up. Children from homes of low
mother's education accompanied by divorce had a greater chance of becoming poor
readers (19 to 33 percent), whereas, as shown in figure 5-.D, high mother education
appeared to moderate the influence of an unstable home.
Mother's Contentment. Both intactness and mother's contentment showed sig-

nificant relationships with reading achievement. In addition, an interaction of these
two independent variables was suggested. Whereas the percentage of poor readers
did not vary as a function of mother's contentment in the intact group, the nonintact
group showed an inverse, almost linear, relationship between mother's contentment
and reading proficiency. As shown in figure 5-7, high maternal contentment seemed
to function as a buffer against the negative correlates of divorce. Figure 5-7 also
suggests that for children whose mothers are described as discontent and poorly
adapted, intact family status did not tend to result in a higher percentage of good or
proficient readers. In this case, the advantage of intact family status seemed to be
that it provided the child some protection from experiencing reading achievement
problems.
Mother's Orderliness. Reading proficiency was the only outcome that was signif-
icantly related to mother's orderliness. For both intact and nonintact families, low
50
45
40
35
<::<1> 30 3~
l2 25
<1> 25
Q..
'~
20
15
10 14
Sex Male Female Total Male Female Total

(N=57j (N=7Bj (N=135j (N=71j (N=67j (N=13Bj
Intact Non·lntact
(N=135j (N=13Bj
Figure 5-5. Percentage with Reading Problems by Sex and Family Intactness
50
45
45
40
c:
II>
35
30
30
~
~
II>
CL 25 24
19
20
15 ~'6
10 11 Reading
5

Education (N =88) (N=47) (N= 135) (N= 109) (N=29) (N= 138)
Intact Non·lntact
(N=135) (N = 138)
Figure 5-6. Percentage with Reading and Math Problems by Mother's Education
maternal orderliness was associated with poor reading proficiency. The percentage
of poor readers was higher in the nonintact families for both the low and middle
orderliness categories. However, nonintact status was not associated with an in-
creased percentage of reading problems in the high maternal orderliness group. Like
contentment, maternal orderliness may be a protector variable against the negative
correlates of divorce, at least as it relates to reading.
Effects of Divorce on Mathematics Proficiency
Sex. Math proficiency was the only outcome to reflect a sex difference. Males
performed better in math than did females. In testing the models with controls, sex
and intactness remained significant when controlling for the other. Both sexes re-
flected an increase in the incidence of poor math and a decrease in the number of
high-math-skill students when there was a divorce. However, as shown in figure 5-
8, females seemed to suffer more than boys as a function of divorce, reflecting a
significantly higher proportion of math difficulties.
Socioeconomic Status. Both divorce and SES had significant effects on math per-
formance. Figure 5-9 shows that the low and middle SES groups had identical pro-
portions of good or high math proficiency in both the intact (29 percent) and
nonintact (9 percent) homes. Low SES children from intact homes and low and mid-
dle SES children from nonintact homes showed a similar heightened percentage of
poor math skills. Clearly, high SES served as a buffer in the homes experiencing
divorce; there were fewer poor math students in the high SES group from nonintact
homes (14 percent) than in all categories of the low and middle SES groups. The
50
45
40 40
Low
c: 35
~.
Cb 30
~
21
27
Cb 25
0.. High 23
20
17 17
15
15 Low 15 15
10
5
Mother's Low Average High Low Average High

Contentment (N = 12) (N = 53) (N = 70) (N=20) (N = 66) (N=52)
Intact Non·lntact
(N= 135) (N = 138)
Figure 5-7. Percentage with High and Low Reading Proficiency by Mother's
rather dramatic proportion of high math achievers in the high SES group further
emphasizes the SES association with this outcome.
Mother's Education. Mother's education showed a significant relationship with

math achievement. The relationship still held when intactness was controlled. Figure
5-6 presents the data for this analysis. Due to the great similarity of the results of the
reading and math analyses, the two were combined into one graph. Figure 5-6
shows the curves for poor achievers only. Similar to results shown in previous data
displays, higher maternal education acts as a buffer against the negative conse-
55
50 51
45
c:
40
35
.~ High / -
Low
Cb 34
~ 30 31
Cb
25 26~
21",
0..
20 Low 22
15
10 High ~6
5
Male Female Male Female

(N=57) (N = 78) (N=71) (N=67)
Intact Non·lntact
(N = 135) (N = 138)
Figure 5-8. Percentage with High and Low Math Skills by Sex and Family
Intactness
65
63
60
55
50
45 43
39_-_
43
~ 40
CIl
Low
~ 35
CIl
0.. 30 29
25 High
20
15 14
10
5

(N~21) (N~69) (N~35) (N~46) (N~59) (N~14)
Intact Non·lntact
(N~ 135) (N~ 138)
Figure 5-9. Percentage with High and Low Math Skills by SES and Family
Intactness
quences of divorce. That is, the increase of poor math achievers as a function of
parental divorce was found only in the low maternal education group.
Mother's Contentment. Divorce and the level of mother's contentment both

showed significant independent effects on math achievement. Controlling for moth-
er's contentment, children from divorced homes still performed less well in math.
As shown in figure 5-10, children from homes with discontent mothers showed a
higher percentage of poor math performance (low: 42 percent, intact; 60 percent,
nonintact), whereas those from high-mother-contentment homes seemed relatively
immune from becoming poor math students. However, the children of highly con-
tented mothers were not entirely buffered from the negative influence of nonintact-
ness: the percentage of high math achievers was quite low in the nonintact group of
contented mothers (15 percent), as compared with the intact group of contented
mothers (46 percent).
Mother's Orderliness. Mother's orderliness had a significant independent effect

on math proficiency. Low maternal orderliness produced the highest percentage of
poor math achievers (47 percent vs 19 percent for high orderliness). However, it
should be noted that high maternal orderliness as a buffer is not sufficient to prevent
a divorce-related increase in the incidence of poor math performance: 13 percent for
65
60 60
55
50
46
45 42
"
40 High 40
II> Low
~ 35
II> 29
a.. 30
25 23
21
20 Low 19
17
15 15
10 10 High
5
Mother's Low Average High Low Average High

Contentment (N~12) (N~53) (N~ 70) (N~20) (N~66) (N~52)
Intact Non·lntact
(N~ 135) (N~ 138)
Figure 5-10. Percentage with High and Low Math Skills by Mother's Contentment
high orderly-intact families as contrasted with 31 percent for high orderly-non intact
families.
General Stability of the Home
As mentioned several times previously, instability of the home environment has been
identified as one of the correlates of divorce that mediated negative long-term con-
sequences for children from broken families. In order to examine the possible influ-
ences that changes in the configuration of the home have, a series of three-factor
log-linear analyses were performed. The four outcomes were reading, mathematics,
aggression, and withdrawal. These were analyzed in separate log-linear analyses in
combination with socioeconomic status and the number of constellations experi-
enced by the child. The number of constellations variable had three levels: (I) one-
constellation or intact families, (2) two or three changes in the adult configuration,
and (3) four or more constellations. The latter two levels provide some sensitivity to
the stability of the postdivorce household.
Since the associations between SES and all four outcomes have already been de-
scribed, the discussion of this series of analyses will focus on the predictive power
of the number of constellations. The number of constellations factor showed no sig-
78 FOLLOW-UP OF THE COHORT INTO ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOor
nificant independent effect on the reading outcome. However, the other thret
outcomes (math, aggression, and withdrawal behavior) all showed significant asso
ciations with the number of family constellations. In the analysis of math profi
ciency, the number of constellations effect held up when controls were imposed fo
SES. The proportions of children with poor math skills were 25 percent, 31 percent
and 46 percent for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Thus, increased postdivofC(
instability increases the probability of increased problems with mathematics. Result:
of the analysis of the aggression outcome were similar; the most unstable farnilie:
had a higher proportion of aggressive children. The analysis of withdrawal behavio
showed an identical pattern. In summary, stability of the home after divorce appear:
to be another mediator of heightened problems for the children from broken homes.
Inspection of the data for the three constellation groups tended to show that th!
most important differences were between children from families having experience(
four or more constellations and the other two groups. The implication of this fmdin!
seems to be that experiencing a parental divorce followed by relatively stable hom!
constellations is quite different from being exposed to both a parental divorce an(
additional changes in adult figures in the home.
Discussion and Future Directions
Our fmdings suggest that divorce does have independent long-term implications fo
a child's development. Coming from a broken home increases the probability tha
the child will have academic problems, at least in the areas of reading and mathe
matics. Similarly, psychosocial development was negatively influenced in this sam
pIe; children from broken homes tended to manifest increased aggressive and/o
withdrawal behaviors.
When controls were imposed for correlated mediating variables (for example
SES, mother's education, and so on), the associations of divorce with the outcome:
were somewhat modified. In general, SES and mother's education also affected al
outcomes independent of divorce. In combination with the divorce, the additive con
tribution of these mediating variables was defined by two conditions: low SES and
or low mother's education produced the poorest development in all four outcom(
areas, and high SES and/or high mother's education seem to provide a buffer to th(
negative effects of a broken home. This same high-low phenomenon held for the
mother's contentment and orderliness variables in the academic performance areas
but not for the psychosocial outcomes.
Contrary to the fmdings of previous research, few sex differences were noted iI
children's long-term reactions to divorce. Mathematics proficiency was the notable
exception: girls who had experienced a broken home performed more poorly thm
boys from broken homes.
The inquiry described in this chapter has added to the literature by emphasizing
the importance of identifying those elements that may mediate the negative conse-
quences of divorce on the developmental process. Our findings support a "multiple
and interactive stress" hypothesis: that stressors, if permitted to compound and cu-
mulate over time, will result in maladaptive behavior. Stressors in a child's life are
likely relatively unimportant if they are really temporary or isolated events. For ex-
ample, children can generally cope with and adapt to the short-term crisis of a di-
vorce within a few years. Long-term damage comes from the interaction of multiple
stressors that may be imbedded in the pre- and postdivorce milieu. Indeed, divorce
is an empirically verifiable negative event in a child's life. However, its long-term
significance depends more upon the qualitative aspects of family functioning rather
than on family structure and whether the child comes from a divorced or intact home.
This is not to say that divorce as an event should be ignored. On the contrary, we
need to think of divorce not as an isolated act or an unimportant environmental agent,
but as a process characterized by a set of events initiated by a variety of predivorce
conditions.
The course of events that defmes divorce does have predictable negative short-
term consequences; however, depending upon the dynamics of the conditions and
the child's reactions to them, divorce mayor may not lead to longer-term problems.
The longer-term depends largely on how much damage has been done to the child's
supporting or nurturing environment, the qualitative elements of the family, and such
mediating variables as SES and maternal characteristics. Future research on the long-
term effects of divorce needs to incorporate all variables that have been shown to
influence the consequences of divorce [Anthony 1974; Hess & Camara 1979; Heth-
erington, Cox, & Cox 1978, 1979b, c; Levitin 1979; Schwartzberg 1981; Shinn
1978; Wallerstein & Kelly 1980].
In addition, both research and applied programs are needed that are oriented to-
ward the identification and facilitation of patterns of family functioning and support
systems that help in coping with the changes and stress associated with divorce.
Since individual and family variation is great, it is essential that we place an empha-
sis on the question of why so many children do not succumb to the perils they face.
The reasons they do not are to be found not only in the characteristics of the individ-
uals themselves, but also in the balance of good and bad influences and the cumu-
lated effects of multiple stressors they experience as they develop [see also FeIner,
Ginter, Boike, & Cowen 1981; Herzog & Sudia 1973].
6 MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND
CHILD DAY CARE
The number of mothers, particularly those with young children, entering the labor
force is increasing each year. Human development researchers, public policy deci-
sion makers, and taxpayers are justifiably concerned with the potential effects of
maternal employment and the relative success or failure of various child-care envi-
ronments. As maternal employment increases and utilization of out-of-home child-
care services continues to expand, a thorough understanding of the long-term cogni-
tive and psychosocial consequences to the child is crucial. The Danish sample
presents an opportunity to describe common maternal work and child-care patterns
and to determine their association with subsequent child and adolescent
development.
Normally, we assume that employment and child care are linked; the reason most
families use some type of nonmatemal care is that the mother is working. However,
as Hoffman [1979] has pointed out, the distance between an antecedent condition,
such as maternal employment or type of child care, and a child outcome measured
in adolescence is significant. Hoffman has identified several mediating variables that
could help to explain a link between maternal employment and child outcomes:
Working mothers may provide a different role model for their children.
This chapter was written in collaboration with William Brock.
81
The mother's financial and social-emotional state may be systematically influ-

enced by employment.
Employed mothers may use different child-rearing techniques because of differ-
ent situational demands.
Working mothers probably provide less personal supervision of their children,
resulting in the children receiving more of various alternative types of
supervision.
There are also numerous reasons why nonmaternal child care could be expected
to produce differential results. For example:
Children in nonmaternal care are typically in a physical environment that involves

different (not necessarily worse) nutrition and rates of exposure to illnesses or
other hazards.
Children are exposed to different adults and different rules of conduct during the
day.
Out-of-home care can be expected to provide increased exposure to peers.
Children in out-of-home care may receive quantitatively or qualitatively different
cognitive and social stimulation.
A Look at Maternal Employment Patterns
With such large numbers of children being raised by working mothers, there is a
clear need for information about maternal employment, including why mothers
work, how they manage their work situation, and whether any direct effects of ma-
ternal employment of the child can be detected. The Danish sample includes mothers
representing a wide spectrum of employment situations and a variety of attitudes and
reactions to work across their children's entire childhood until the time of data collec-
tion. This data base provided the opportunity to take a close look at the variability in
maternal employment patterns and provided a basis for defming unique, differen-
tiated patterns suitable for use in further study of maternal employment.
The first step in studying maternal employment in the follow-up sample was to
develop a meaningful operational definition of the construct. Such information as the
types of jobs a mother had, the age of the child while the mother was employed, full-
versus part-time work, and the mother's attitude toward work may all playa part in
defining a suitable definition for maternal employment. Hoffman [1980] described
the arbitrary criteria that have been used in the past to define maternal employment.
Most studies define working mothers as those working when the study took place,
MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND CHILD DAY CARE 83
regardless of the duration of employment. Other definitions have included "worked

within the last six months" or "worked for at least four consecutive years up to the
time of study." Definitions such as these do not attempt a systematic treatment of
work history, provide little basis for inferring direct relationships, and provide no
basis for comparisons among studies. Similar definitional problems occur when
"nonworking" mothers are included in a study. Maternal employment data on the
Danish sample clearly show that relatively few mothers (approximately 10 percent)
actually never worked.
The present study, reported by Alexson [1983], defmed work patterns for each
mother's entire work history since the birth of the index child. Three age groupings
for the index child were defined: 0--6 years, 6--11 years, and over 11 years. If a
mother worked more than half of a time interval, she was considered to have worked
during that interval. Therefore, each woman could be designated as having worked
or not worked for each time interval. Imagining a plus sign for having worked and a
minus sign for not having worked over three time intervals, one can defme eight
patterns of maternal work: for example, plus (0--6) plus (6--11) plus (12+),
" + + + ," defined a mother who worked during every stage of the child's life. Mi-
nus (0--6), plus (6--11), and plus (12 + ), "- + + ," indicated a mother who did not
work while the child was preschool age, but then worked throughout the child's
school age and adolescence.
Table 6--1 shows the distribution of women in the sample across ten different
work history patterns. The original eight patterns were expanded to ten in order to
Table 6-1. Distribution of Maternal Work Patterns
Child's Age
Total Number
Work Pattern 0-6 6-11 12+ for This Pattern
I "Always worked" full time + + + IOI

2 + + + 43
3 + + 21
4 + + 32
5 + 28
6 + + 84
7 + 16
8 + 223
9 203
IO "Never worked" 82
+ = Worked most of this time frame.
- = Worked less than SO percent of this time frame.
further differentiate the two extreme groups. The two new groups were defined as
(1) pattern I, mothers who always worked, as contrasted with mothers who worked
at least 50 percent of each time interval and received a "+ + +" coding and (2)
pattern 10, mothers who never worked, as contrasted with mothers who worked less
than 50 percent of each time interval and received a " - - - " coding.
In developing the work patterns, part-time work was considered equal to one-half
of full-time work. If during a given interval a mother reported two years of part-time
work, it was counted as one year of (full-time) work. Although the mothers in both
patterns I and 2 worked more than half of each time interval, several differences
were still apparent. The mothers in pattern I worked full time throughout the inter-
val, with a negligible amount of part-time work included in their work history. In-
deed, these women worked over 16 years full time between the time the child was
born and high-school age (the time the data were collected). The mothers in pattern
2 also worked during a majority of their child's life, but only 10 years or less on a
full-time basis. At the other extreme, pattern 10 clearly defines never-worked moth-
ers; while pattern 9 (worked less than half of each time interval) includes mothers
who worked over five years in total, primarily part time.
Several of the patterns were combined because of small numbers or limited theo-
retical interest. Six final patterns were created, brief descriptions of which are as
follows:
I. Pattern I: Mothers who worked full time the entire life of the child from
infancy (N = 100).
2. Combination of patterns 2, 3, 4, and 5: Mothers who worked during the
majority of the child's life, including preschool years, a combination of full
time (primarily) and part time (N = 123).
3. Combination of patterns 6 and 7: Mothers who did not work during child's
preschool years, then worked most of the time, primarily full time, but with
part-time work for several years as well (N = 100).
4. Pattern 8: Mothers who worked primarily after child reached adolescence,
mostly part time (N = 23).
5. Pattern 9: Mothers who worked just a few years part time throughout the life
of the child (N = 202).
6. Pattern 10: Mothers who never worked (N = 82).
Association with Social and Familial Variables
The association of the maternal employment patterns with selected social and famil-
ial variables indicated that the patterns do reflect differential characteristics. These
analyses are further elaborated by Alexson [1983]. Described here are the analyses
of selected social and family variables that have been found to be associated with
adolescent academic and psychosocial outcomes. Following are the variables ana-
lyzed (a fuller description of them may be found in chapter 4):
1. Socioeconomic status: 0-7 scale based on Svalastoga [1959].

2. Number of family constellations experienced over the life of the adolescent:
a score of 1 indicates always intact.
3. Mother's educational level: 1-6 scale based on the Danish academic exami-
nation procedure.
4. Mother's overall contentment: scale score derived from social worker inter-
view of the mother.
5. Mother's age at the birth of the index child.
6. Family size, number of siblings.
7. Conflict with husband due to work: scale score derived from the social
worker interview.
Table 6-2 shows the results of the analyses of variance and subsequent mean
comparisons. Mother's educational level was the only variable that did not reflect
statistical differences among the patterns of employment. Note the solid line under
all six patterns for the mother's education analysis. This simply means that no statis-
tically significant group differences were found. The mean comparison analyses for
the other variables may be interpreted similarily; that is, when two or more patterns
share a common line, they do not differ statistically. For example, in the SES analy-
sis, patterns I, 5, 4, and 3 are underlined and 5, 4, 3, and 2 are underlined. This
means that pattern 6 differs from all other patterns and that pattern 2 differs from
patterns 1 and 6. Although patterns 1 and 6 (always worked and never worked)
showed a slightly higher level of maternal education, they were not statistically dif-
ferent. Comparison of the two extreme patterns on the other variables is interesting
as well. In addition to education level, both patterns 1 and 6 possessed higher SES
than the others, and they were both in the middle of the overall maternal contentment
scale. This is where the similarity ends: pattern I (always worked) experienced sig-
nificantly more family instability, recording an average of 3.18 constellations as
compared to 1.39 for pattern 6. Note also that pattern 6 (never worked) was a much
older group (mean age 25.58) when the index child was born. In spite of the five-
year difference in age, pattern 1 mothers showed the lowest average number of chil-
dren (2.20) for all patterns. Pattern I mothers also reflected the greatest amount of
conflict with the husband over their employment. This scale was not applicable to
the pattern 6 women because they never worked.
At this stage of the inquiry one would begin to conjecture that maternal employ-
ment status, at least on the basis of the two extreme groups, might indeed be associ-
ated with longer-term child outcomes. Since we have evidence that SES, family
Table 6-2. Analyses of Selected Family Variables by Mother's Employment

Patterns
Mean Scores of Patterns in Descending Order and

Family Variables Scheffe Comparisons
Socioeconomic 6(3.74) 1 (3.09) 5 (2.77) 4 (2.69) 3 (2.68) 2 (2.08)

status
Number of family 2 (3.27) 1 (3.18) 3 (2.74) 5 (2.21) 4 (1.96) 6 (1.39)

constellations
Mother's education 6 (2.88) 1 (2.81) 4 (2.69) 5 (2.49) 3 (2.32) 2 (2.27)

level
Mother's overall 3 (12.86) 4 (12.83) 6 (12.59) 1 (12.24) 5 (12.12) 2 (11.77)

contentment
Mother's age at 6(30.17) 4 (26.19) 5 (25.68) 1 (25.58) 3 (24.67) 2 (24.20)

birth of index
Family size 3 (2.71) 5 (2.66) 6 (2.61) 4 (2.58) 2(2.41) 1 (2.20)
Conflict with 1 (5.53) 4 (5.39) 3 (5.33) 2 (5.11) 5 (4.65) 6 (N/A)

husband due to
work
NI A = Not applicable.
Note: Means connected by a common line are equaL
intactness or stability, and mother's educational level all contribute to positive or

negative consequences for the child, one would posit that some pattern effects might
be found on adolescent academic and social outcomes. While SES was a "wash," in
that both patterns I and 6 were high, family stability and conflict with the husband
over work were not. The comparatively high number of constellations for pattern 1,
coupled with high instability for all three high employment patterns, would suggest
the possibility of later negative consequences for the child. Also, the fact that the
pattern 1 group, as well as patterns 2, 3, and 4, have significantly more dissension
as a result of mother employment, also suggests possible later risk to the child.
Association of Work Patterns with Adolescent Outcomes
To determine the necessity for further inquiry involving controls for some of the
promising social and familial variables, a series of one-way ANOVAs was com-
pleted that looked at adolescent outcomes across the employment patterns. Separate
analyses were run for boys and girls. The adolescent outcomes included four scales
derived from teacher judgments. Chapter 4 details the development of these scales,
which are as follows:
1. Reading proficiency.
2. Mathematics proficiency.
3. Aggression.
4. Withdrawal.
The separate analyses for boys and girls yielded identical results; thus, only the
results for the total sample will be described. Table 6-3 shows all four analyses. As
can be seen, there were essentially no direct or independent "effects" of maternal
employment patterns on child outcomes. Irrespective of the covariance of the social
variables with both employment patterns and adolescent outcomes, the variance they
shared did not sufficiently defme the etiological elements of mathematics, reading,
aggression, and withdrawal.
The path from maternal employment to adolescent outcomes is lengthy and cer-
tainly mediated by a variety of personal and environmental factors. The distance
between an antecedent condition like maternal employment and a child characteristic
is too great to be covered in a single leap [Hoffman 1979]. Our findings corroborate
those of most of the post-1960 literature. The basic theme of the major literature
reviews is that more than maternal employment itself, it is the context in which ma-
ternal employment takes place that determines the effects on the child [Etaugh 1974;
Hoffman 1974, 1979, 1980; Wallston 1974]. This translates into a need to focus on
relevant variables that covary with or mediate the effects of maternal employment on
child outcomes. However, as in our own inquiry, identifying the etiological elements
is difficult, especially when the different patterns of maternal employment show no
differential direct association with adolescent outcomes. This suggests that the "me-
diating" variables themselves should be the focus, with the data items defined as
more qualitative descriptions of the process.
A near example of the effects of mediating variables is reflected in the Rosenthal
[1978] study in which family intactness was analyzed as a "mediating" variable. We
call it a near example simply because we infer certain qualitative information from
the presence or absence of the condition of divorce. At any rate, the Rosenthal anal-
yses showed that school achievement was related to the child's perceptions of his or
her mother and father; the perceptions were related not to maternal employment, but
to family structure and the dynamics of the interaction of family members. In other
words, family stability/compatibility had a more salient effect on school performance
than the mother's work history.
Table 6-3. Analyses of the Association of Work Patterns with Adolescent Outcomes
Pattern N Mean S.D. F P
Reading Proficiency:
1 40 32.28 8.73 1.21 0.31
2 52 32.17 8.06
3 38 30.24 8.75
4 93 32.55 8.33
5 80 30.95 8.69
6 30 31.73 9.53
Math Proficiency:
1 35 32.14 7.89 1.56 0.17
2 40 28.13 10.36
3 31 29.35 9.55
4 75 30.47 9.93
5 70 27.21 9.80
6 26 30.00 11.49
Aggression:
1 39 21.62 9.34 1.42 0.22
2 48 23.33 9.60
3 36 23.39 10.07
4 85 21.45 9.39
5 79 20.04 8.36
6 30 19.43 7.62
Withdrawal:
1 40 26.30 6.72 1.11 0.35
2 50 26.94 8.49
3 35 27.71 8.21
4 88 25.57 7.29
5 79 26.57 6.96
6 30 28.83 5.32
Like divorce, treated in chapter 5, maternal employment is a variable that marks

a complex set or series of events that requires considerable sorting out to identify the
etiological elements of any negative consequences. However, unlike divorce, mater-
nal employment does not seem to directly label a process that leads to particularly
negative outcomes for the child.
Association of Work Instability with Adolescent Outcomes
Patterns of maternal employment were not associated directly with adolescent out-
comes. However, the inquiries reported elsewhere in this book strongly suggest the
importance of any form of instability or disequilibrium as an important mediator of
negative adolescent outcomes. For example, in chapter 5 divorce was related to neg-
ative child outcomes, but so was parental dissension in the intact family (see also
chapter 8). It may be that the most important set of determining conditions is defined
in terms of stability or equilibrium, order, freedom from the distractions of family
dissension, and the like - and not in terms of a specific event or a specific family
structural element. Just as discord and dissension is embedded in the process of di-
vorce, similar disturbances may be detected by looking at other aspects that show up
in maternal employment. A scale derived from the social worker interview of the
mother measured mother's employment instability: for example, sporadic versus
constancy of work, stagnation versus promotion in work, same work versus numer-
ous jobs. Clearly, some of the employment patterns are more sensitive to this mea-
sure than others, but the condition seemed to distribute itself across all patterns with
the exception of pattern 6 (never worked).
Recall that for the sporadic/constant element of the scale, pattern I mothers were
characterized by significantly less instability than those of any other work pattern.
Predictably, pattern 5 "dabblers" had the lowest level of work constancy, since by
definition they worked sporadically. Pattern 2 mothers, who worked during the ma-
jority of the child's life, had the second lowest level of work constancy. The other
two elements of the scale were, as one would expect, represented across patterns 1-
5, with somewhat less identification with patterns 2 and 5. At any rate, the employ-
ment instability distribution was divided into three groups representing relatively low
to high instability. Table 6-4 shows the ANOYA of adolescent outcomes by employ-
ment instability group. Note that the F-tests for all analyses were significant, with
lower levels of employment instability consistently related to superior outcomes.
Suffice at this point to suggest that our results support the notion that it is the
mother's personal climate and not her employment status that influences child out-
comes. This is consistent with related work by Yarrow et al. [1962], who found that
working per se was not significantly related to child-rearing patterns nor to a sum-
mary measure of adequacy of mothers. In her review, Hoffman [1980] noted that
mother's satisfaction has been frequently associated with various measures of par-
enting skills and child adjustment [Kappel & Lambert 1972; Kliger 1954; Woods
1972; Yarrow et al. 1962]. Hoffman proposed a positive impact of employment,
suggesting that under certain circumstances work may be a valuable boost to the
mother's morale. When maternal employment is satisfying because it is easily inte-
Table 6-4. Analyses of Adolescent Outcomes by Maternal Employment Instability
Employment
Instability N Mean S.D. F P
Reading Proficiency
Low 100 34.38 8.43 10.83 .001
Med 126 31.41 8.56
High 67 28.39 7.20
Math Proficiency
Low 80 31.63 9.67 13.32 .001
Med 108 29.63 8.91
High 56 23.66 8.45
Aggression
Low 94 20.38 9.44 12.27 .001
Med 126 21.41 8.56
High 67 28.39 7.20
Withdrawal
Low 97 24.95 7.90 4.25 .016
Med 120 27.23 7.12
High 65 28.09 6.79
grated into her dual role as worker-mother or because of its intrinsic satisfaction, "the
effects on the child may be positive" [Hoffman 1974, p. 218].
Child-Care Arrangements
While the need for child care is often determined by the mother's employment, a
host of factors are involved in determining the type of care selected by a given fam-
ily. The data from this sample clearly show that a wide variety of child-care alterna-
tives exist at every age level. The major child-care alternatives used by families in
the Danish sample are shown in table 6--5. As shown in the table, maternal care was
a popular alternative at every age level. Full-time care was chosen by a sizable num-
ber of families throughout the preschool-aged children. As children achieved school
age, the use of an after-school center appeared. By the age of 12, after-school super-
vision was frequently entrusted to older sibs or the child was frequently responsible
for him- or herself.
Table 6-5. Number of Children in Each Type of Day Care by Age
Ageo/Child
Type o/Child Care 0-3 3-6 6-11 Over 11
Maternal care 347 287 346 293

Full-time day care 79 140
Half-time day care 61
Father care 26 46 38
Day nurse 41
Grandmother care 55 31 21
In-home sitter 32
Other adult outside home 38
After school center 95 40
Older sibs 34
No designated caretaker after school 147
- = Sample size for this cell is zero or close to zero.
Prediction to Type of Child Care
Prediction to child-care arrangements was fairly good after ages G-3. Typically, the
most important predictor of child care at one age level was the subject's child-care
status during the previous age level. Out-of-home care (including day care) was fre-
quently associated with lower family incomes. Thus, lower SES children were ex-
posed more frequently to child-care situations with less maternal contact and
increased peer contact. High SES families tended to utilize more in-home indivi-
dualized child care arrangements, particularly for younger (G-3) children.
Although day care from 0 to 3 could not be predicted differentially from other
out-of-home care arrangements, it was predicted more by the child's home environ-
ment than by the family's economic resources. Families with greater instability, dis-
sension, and maternal discontent tended to use infant-toddler day care. Once children
began attending day care, they typically continued. Day care from 0 to 3 was the
best predictor of day care from 3 to 6. Overall, children from poorer home environ-
ments tended to enter day care earlier and to receive more full-time day care.
The use of half-time day care (from 3 to 6) was predicted by family stability and
relatively high family income. Thus, families with better home environments and
higher SES did use day care, but with less "intensity" - they tended to wait until
their children were older, and they tended to use more part-time day care.
Maternal care for all age groups was consistently predicted by higher SES. In this
sample, apparently, a stable group of families provided virtually exclusive maternal
care, particularly prior to age 6. There was another group that resembled the mater-
nal care group: the children aged 0 to 3 who received in-home care from a babysitter
or young woman. Higher family instability was the only variable on which this group
differed from the maternal care group.
For older children, prediction to after-school child-care arrangements was good.
In most cases, knowledge of the type of child care at the previous age enabled us to
predict type of care later. Subjects cared for by older siblings during adolescence
often received full-time day care from 3 to 6 and had stable family backgrounds.
Subjects with no caretaker after age II often received full-time day care during ages
oto 6 and tended to be from families rated as less stable.
The Long-Term Effects of Various Child-Care Arrangements
The most critical questions about maternal employment patterns and child care relate
to the long-term consequences of these variables on the family and the child. This
section looks at some of the studies we have conducted to analyze the effects on the
child of early childhood day care and other alternative types of care. These studies
involved looking at psychosocial and cognitive outcomes in adolescence. The long-
term physical consequences of various child-care settings have not been analyzed to
date, but pertinent reviews of this area can be found in Kilmer [1979] and Sjolund
[1973].
A great deal of interest has been expressed in the literature related to the effects
of day-care settings and nonmaternal care generally. Reviews of the literature on
day-care effects may be found in Belsky and Steinberg [1978], Brock [1981a],
Etaugh [1980], Kilmer [1979], and Ricciuti and Poresky [1973].
Early studies of the psychosocial effects of alternative types of child care focused
primarily on the possible negative influences of maternal employment and attendant
mother-child separation. Etaugh [19801 has described the popular assumption that
virtually any nonmaternal care is harmful. Indeed, several early studies provided
direct evidence that day care, measured as a global variable, can negatively affect
the mother-child relationship. However, the majority of studies since that time have
detected no differences between high-quality day care and maternal care. In recent
years the study of psychosocial effects has broadened considerably to include anal-
yses of interactions with peers and other adults, as well as verbal and physical coop-
eration and aggression. Nonetheless, few studies have shown negative psychosocial
effects for high-quality day care [Brock, 198Ia).
Studies of the cognitive effects of child-care arrangements have traditionally fo-
cused on the concern that child-care centers, as institutional settings, may provide
decreased cognitive stimulation. On the other hand, many researchers have begun to
assert that, particularly for disadvantaged children, child-care settings may provide
greater stimulation than a single caretaker at home. Most studies have reported no
differential cognitive effects between day-care and home-reared middle-class chil-
dren. In fact, a number of studies have shown that day care, particularly for disad-
vantaged children, may aid cognitive development [Brock 1981a].
A number of difficulties are involved in research on child-care effects. The typical
study involves an ex post facto comparison of several (small) matched groups. Sel-
dom are the variables and study context described in sufficient detail to permit strong
inferences from the data. Studies of cognitive effects have typically utilized standard-
ized test results as outcome measures. Such measures can be expected to be ex-
tremely limited in their sensitivity to any program-specific curriculum objectives.
Few studies have included average-quality centers or a large enough sample of chil-
dren or centers to draw inferences about the effects of average-quality child care.
Finally, with the notable exception of Moore [1975], there have been few long-term
follow-up studies. The follow-up studies that have been conducted have been rela-
tively short-term follow-ups of not more than three years.
Moore [1975] conducted one of the few longitudinal studies through adolescence
of children who received either exclusively mothering or day care for at least one
year prior to the age of 5. Because the sample size was relatively large (N = 167),
he was able to analyze several subpopulations separately. Moore's dependent vari-
ables were derived from mother interviews as well as various psychological tests. He
found a type of care by sex interaction, noting that prediction for boys was consid-
erably better than for girls. Children who received exclusive mothering tended to-
ward self-control and school achievement, perhaps indicating that they had to some
extent internalized adult standards. Children in substitute care tended to be more
peer-oriented, active, and aggressive.
Moore's study is significant in at least two respects. First, in contrast to most
studies of high-quality centers, a variety of day-care centers was included in the
study. This may permit some generalization of the results to average day-care set-
tings. He speculated that optimal child-care arrangements could well include part-
time substitute care after the age of three. Secondly, Moore's study followed children
to mid-adolescence. He found that although the selection criterion was type of care
before age 5, there was better prediction of cognitive functioning to age 15 than at
younger ages. Moore also found a more consistent picture of day-care effects in
adolescence than at any previous time in the subjects' lives. These fmdings support
the notion that marginal differences and trends in early experience often cannot be
observed until adolescence, when their ultimate effect on adult functioning can be
seen, a finding supportive of further research on long-term effects and indicative of
the possibility of so-called "sleeper effect" or problems of measurement.
This hypothesis has also received support from a related area of inquiry: the Head
Start evaluation literature. Lazar, Hubbell, Murray, Rosche, and Royce [1977] have
published the results of a long-term follow-up of a group of Head Start programs.
These programs, which began in the mid-1960s, now have program graduates who
are in adolescence. Lazar et al. argue that the children have had lasting effects from
program participation: they have had lower rates of special education in school than
matched controls and were less likely to repeat a grade. Although there were no
differences in IQ between groups, attitudinal differences were clear. The graduates
of Head Start programs exhibited better attitudes toward school, their peers, and their
vocational opportunities according to the measures adopted for the study.
The studies by Lazar et al. [1977] and Moore [1975] indicate a need for long-term
follow-up studies of various types of child-care arrangements, and the present study
directly addressed that need. Our outcome variables included the child's effective-
ness in peer and adult interactions, as well as several cognitive or academic mea-
sures. Following Zigler and Trickett [1978], a number of molar outcome measures
were also utilized, including the existence of an arrest record, the incidence of spe-
cial education, and the incidence of school psychologist evaluations.
Psychosocial Outcomes
The results of our analyses of psychosocial effects, reported by Brock [198Ib], in-
dicated that various child-care alternatives do predict psychosocial outcomes in ado-
lescence. A series of discriminant analyses is summarized in table 6-6. The predictor
variables included SES-related and maternal variables, as well as all of the child-care
variables with sufficiently large groups. The prediction of SES-related variables to
adolescent psychosocial outcomes was strong. Child-care arrangements were also
successful predictors, although the effects are complex.
Type of child care, usually in conjunction with family stability, predicted to peer
interaction, parent interaction, arrest record, adult interaction, and aggressiveness.
In looking at these results, it appears that the individualized child-care arrangements
tended to positively influence adult relations. Child care in settings with other chil-
dren tended to influence social behavior strongly, both in a positive and negative
direction, increasing both peer relations and aggressiveness.
The effects of half-time and full-time day care from ages 3 to 6 were generally
positive for the sample. Good peer, adult, and parent relations were all associated
with half-time day care from ages 3 to 6, a finding that supports those of Meyer
[1972] and Moore [1975], who found day care to be associated with good peer rela-
tions. Half-time day care did not predict toward any negative psychosocial
outcomes.
Full-time day care from ages 0 to 3 was associated with increased aggressiveness
in adolescence. From ages 3 to 6 full-time day care predicted both aggressiveness
and good peer relations, a finding that is very similar to that of Meyer [1972], who
found full-time day care to be associated with both of these outcome measures.
Care in an after-school center was associated with several negative outcomes.
These negative outcomes included aggressiveness, as well as the presence of a
Table 6--6. Discriminant Function Analyses Predicting Toward Psychosocial

Standardized Discriminant Function Coefficients
Peer Adult Parent Arrest

Predictor Interaction Interaction Interaction Aggression Record
Subject's sex * .23 * * -.54

Socioeconomic status .32 * .36 .16 *
Family instability -.32 -.63 - .18 - .49 .39
Neonatal physical * * - .48 -.27 .24
health problems
Neonatal neurological * * -.24 -.24 *
problems
Neighborhood rating is * * -.55 * *
poor
Maternal orderliness * * * * -.23
Maternal contentment * * * * *
Family dissension * * * * .23
oto 3: Mother care * * * * *
Full-time day care * * * * *
Day nurse * * .30 * *
Grandmother * * * * *
In-home sitter * .37 * .24 *
3 to 6: Mother care * .33 * * *
Full-time day care * * - .14 * .07
Half-time day care .51 .42 .24 * *
Father care * * * * *
Grandmother * * * * *
6 to 11: Mother care * * * * *
Father care * * .29 * - .11
Grandmother * * * -.24 *
Another adult .28 * * .35 *
After-school center * * * * .03
Over 11: Mother care * * * * -.55
Father care * .32 * * -.23
After-school center * * -.27 -.32 *
Older siblings .64 * * * *
Noone * * -.22 * -.44
Wilks' A .90 .90 .83 .90 .83

Canonical correlation .31 .31 .41 .31 .41
Function score to + + + + zero
indicate positive
outcome
Note: An asterisk (*) indicates a variable did not contribute to the function and was dropped.
Table 6-7. Discriminant Function Analyses Predicting Toward Academic Outcomes in Adolescence
Standardized Discriminant Function Coefficients
Verbal Reading Math Work Special Remedial

Predictor Skills Achievement Achievement Organization Education Instruction
Subject's sex .16 * -.28 .53 .47 .16

Socioeconomic status .39 .62 .74 .33 * .34
Family instability - 045 * - .19 - .43 * - .34
Neonatal physical health problems * * * * -.44 -.37
Neonatal neurological problems .20 * * * * .25
Neighborhood rating is poor AI .42 .39 * * .43
Maternal orderliness * * * * .57 .10
Maternal contentment .38 .26 .43 * .29 .35
Family dissension .28 * .27 - .19 * .30
oto 3: Mother care * * * * * .15
Full-time day care * * * * * .20
Day nurse * * * * * *
Grandmother * * * * * .35
In-home sitter * .02 * .25 * *
3 to 6: Mother care * * .22 * * .56
Full-time day care * -.28 * * -.22 *
Half-time day care .38 .21 * .26 * *
Father care * * * * -.24 *
Grandmother * * * * .18 *
6 to 11: Mother care * * * * * -.39
Father care .31 .19 * * * *
Grandmother * * * * * *
Another adult .26 .26 .32 * * *
After-school center * * * * * -.39
Over 11: Mother care * -.39 * * * *
Father care * * * * * - .27
After-school center * * -.20 * * .19
Older siblings -.29 - .45 -.20 * * *
Noone * -.27 * - .17 * *
Wilks' 't.. .86 .81 .76 .83 .9 .79
Canonical correlation .38 .43 .49 .42 .32 .46
Function score to indicate positive outcome + + + + + +
Note: An asterisk (*) indicates a variable did not contribute to the function and was dropped.
school psychologist's evaluation, remedial instruction, and special education. This is

an interesting finding with several possible explanations. It may be that children be-
gan attending an after-school center because they were already exhibiting problem
behavior and the additional supervision of an after-school center was considered de-
sirable. Alternatively, some factor associated with after-school care, such as in-
creased peer interaction, may have promoted increased negative behavior. Of interest
is that in the follow-up sample, after-school care was more closely associated with
negative outcomes than either care by older siblings or even the complete absence of
supervision.
Care by older siblings after age 11 predicted good peer relations. The absence of
supervision was a predictor only for noncrirninality - an apparently paradoxical
finding. As suggested above, subjects who later were arrested may have displayed
behavior earlier that resulted in the presence of some type of supervision after age
Ii.
The most influential social variable was family instability, which predicted to four
of five psychosocial outcome measures. In all cases, the family instability measure
operated in the expected direction: instability was associated with negative out-
comes, and stability was associated with positive outcomes.
Academic Outcomes
The results of our analyses predicting to academic outcomes were first reported by
Brock [1981 b]. A summary of these results is shown in table 6-7. In the Danish
sample, academic outcomes were better predicted by SES, whereas psychosocial
outcomes were better predicted by other measures associated directly with the home
and family environment.
Full-time day care, particularly from ages 0 to 3, was associated with several
negative academic outcomes. Early full-time care predicted to poor math achieve-
ment and an increased incidence of special education. However, half-time day care
from ages 3 to 6 exerted a positive influence on several academic outcome measures.
Half-time day care predicted to good verbal skills and good work organization skills.
Students who were in half-time day care from ages 3 to 6 were often in an appropri-
ate grade placement for their age by the time they reached adolescence. The positive
influence of half-time day care is presumably the result of exposure to increased
social and cognitive stimulation in appropriate dosages for the developing child. The
academic effects of child-care arrangements after the child enters school provide ad-
ditional support for this interpretation. Reading achievement was predicted by the
absence of maternal care or care by older siblings after age 11. Math achievement,
too, was predicted by care by an unrelated adult from ages 6 to 11.
Both matemal care and care in an after-school center were associated with several
negative cognitive fmdings. Maternal care from ages 3 to 6 predicted to both grade
retention and school psychologist examinations. Maternal care over age 11 predicted
to relatively poor reading achievement. Attendance at an after-school center pre-
dicted to special education, remedial instruction, and the presence of school psy-
chologyexaminations.
The SES-related variables, particularly those associated with inferred estimates of
the family's economic resources, showed strong effects on academic or cognitive
measures. Home environment measures such as family stability, maternal content-
ment, and the mother's perception of her neighborhood also predicted toward aca-
demic achievement measures.
A Final Comment
As indicated at the outset of this chapter, we normally assume that maternal employ-
ment and child care are linked: the reason most families use some type of nonmater-
nal child care is that the mother is working. However, it should be pointed out that
the inquiry necessary to determine the interactive and additive effects of maternal
employment and child care on adolescent outcomes in the Danish Perinatal Sample
is not yet complete. The studies described here provide a partial basis for the addi-
tional inquiry needed. The major contribution of the maternal employment inquiry is
that a meaningful operational definition of the construct was developed. The defmi-
tion involved a systematic treatment of the mothers' entire work histories over the
first 18 years of the offsprings' lives. The six work patterns that evolved reflected
both the amount of time and the periods of the child's life during which the mother
worked. An important, but nonetheless secondary, contribution at this point were the
analyses that linked the work patterns with both adolescent outcomes and a myriad
of intervening social and personal variables. The results of the maternal employment
studies were not available at the time the analytic framework for the child-care in-
quiry was being developed since the two sets of studies were evolved and conducted
in parallel.
Thus, further inquiry in this area needs to more precisely link the different mater-
nal and family characteristics with the different employment and child-care choices,
and to determine their differential effect on adolescent outcomes.
7 FAMILY SIZE AND BIRTH ORDER
Birth order and family size have been shown to be associated with children's devel-
opment in the areas of intellectual achievement, psychosocial adjustment, and phys-
ical growth. However, the amount of research and consistency of the relationships
reported differ among the three outcome areas. Whereas a family structure influence
on physical growth has been consistently reported across the relatively few studies
conducted, rather pervasive inconsistencies have been noted in the research relating
family structure variables with intellectual and psychosocial outcomes. This chapter
will initially review the literature relating family structure variables with the child's
development in each of the three outcome areas. Subsequently, results of analyses
will be presented describing the association between family structure variables and
these three types of outcomes in the Danish sample. The analyses directly address
some of the issues raised in the literature and represent the first attempt (to our
knowledge) to analyze all three outcome areas using the same sample.
Intellectual Achievement
The outcome area that includes measures of intellectual ability and academic
achievement has received considerable research attention, resulting in a large body
Substantial portions of this chapter appear by permission granted by the Merrill-Palmer Quar-
terly. Reference is made to Mednick, B., Baker, R. and Hocevar, D. Family size and birth order
correlates of intellectual, psychosocial and physical growth, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1985, 31
(page numbers for the January 1985 issue unavailable at this time).
101
of literature examining birth order and family size effects. Although the influences
of birth order and family size on child development are clearly interdependent, our
review of the relevant literature will treat the two variables separately.
Birth Order
Studies of the relationship between birth order and intellectual outcomes vary with
respect to whether they involve procedures controlling for the confounding family
size variable (that is, low birth orders can only occur in large families). A series of
more methodologically adequate studies have handled this problem by analyzing the
effect of birth order within groups that have been homogenized on the basis of family
size. The general finding from several of these studies is that declining birth order is
associated with declining intellectual performance within each family size. The in-
fluence of larger family size is seen as having an increasingly depressing effect on
the score range, with an attendant progressive disadvantage for the youngest in com-
parison with the oldest in larger family sizes [Belmont & Marolla 1973; Belmont,
Stein, & Wittes 1976; Eysenck & Cookson 1970; Zajonc 1976]. In spite of agree-
ment of findings among the studies referenced, some unresolved issues remain. For
example, one study found that onlies performed better than all other birth order po-
sitions [Eysenck & Cookson 1970]. Others have found firstborns in two-child fami-
lies to be superior to onlies [Belmont & Marolla 1973; Zajonc & Markus 1975], and,
finally, one study [Glass, Neulinger, & Brim 1974] found no differences between
onlies, firstborns, and secondborns in small families.
A more fundamental issue has been raised periodically and more recently was
addressed in a series of studies [Record et al. 1969; Schooler 1972; Svanum & Brin-
gle 1980; Zajonc & Bargh 1980]. The issue was the degree to which observed birth
order relationships with intellectual outcomes may be artifacts observable only under
certain conditions or in certain samples. Record et al. [1969] found the relationship
between birth order and IQ to be due to "differences between rather than within
families." That is, the effect could be observed only in analyses of aggregated data.
Birth order did not explain differences between the children within a family. The
authors therefore assumed the effect to be due to factors covarying with family size.
Similarly, Schooler [1972] maintained that birth order effects are at best trivial and
are more parsimoniously explained by concurrent variations in family size and ulti-
mately in SES.
The more recent studies in the area do not provide unequivocal evidence either
for or against the existence of a birth order influence on achievement. The findings
of Svanum and Bringle [1980], from analyses of a large representative American
sample of 6- to II-year-olds, constitute recent support for the notion that birth order
effects are not significant when family size is controlled. Similarly, Zajonc and
FAMILY SIZE AND BIRTH ORDER 103
Bargh [1980] found inconsistent birth order effects in three cohorts taking SAT ex-
ams during the early 1970s. Contrary to these findings, Zajonc and Bargh [1980]
reported significant birth order influences in elementary-school children born in
1962, and a study by Berbaum and Moreland [1980] likewise presented support for
a birth order influence on children's intellectual achievement.
Thus, the research evidence suggesting an association between birth order and
intellectual achievement remains inconclusive. The inconsistency of findings could
conceivably be a function of a set of subject characteristics not uniformly measured
or controlled across studies, for example, SES or subject age.
SES variations have not been found to be systematically related to whether a birth
order influence on intellectual outcomes was observed. For example, Belmont and
Marolla [1973] found significant birth order correlations within the high as well as
low SES groups. Also, the cohorts taking the SAT in the 1960s and 1970s yielded
different results with respect to an observable birth order relationship, but were quite
similar with respect to SES.
Sample differences in the age of subjects is another possible contributor to the
inconsistencies in the birth order literature. Zajonc, Markus, and Markus [1979] ad-
vanced the argument that the relationship between birth order and intellectual
achievement should be expected to vary as a function of the subjects' age at the time
of testing. More specifically, they argue that assuming constancy of family dynamics
across studies that measure outcomes at different ages, the relationships between
birth order and the outcomes would vary. For example, where the confluence model
would predict firstborn superiority in cohorts of subjects over age 14, it would pre-
dict that secondborns would be superior in cohorts between 3 and 10 years old. Since
the 11-13 age period constitutes a transition period, the confluence model would
predict mixed findings. Thus, inconsistencies in findings in cohorts under age 14
would not warrant the conclusion that birth order has no association with intellectual
outcomes. However, the Zajonc and Bargh [1980] finding that predicted birth order
effects to be absent or inconsistent in older cohorts taking the SAT during the 1970s
is clearly a counterindication of the predicted birth order effect.
Also significant is that the inconsistency of birth order findings is not likely a
function of the nature of the measures used. For example, younger cohorts taking the
SAT were found to differ from older cohorts taking the same test. Evidence also
shows that where both standardized measures and other types of observational mea-
sures of intellectual achievement were used with the same sample, the same birth
order associations were obtained. For example, Eysenck and Cookson [1970], using
both standardized achievement measures and teacher ratings, obtained identical re-
sults with both measures. Similarly, Belmont and Marolla [1973] and Belmont,
Stein, and Susser [1975] found a negative correlation between Raven Matrix scores
and increasing birth order. In the same study a measure of school failure based on
subject self-reports correlated positively with increasing birth order; as predicted,
laterborns experienced a higher incidence of school failure.
Family Size
The literature is also inconsistent with regard to the relationship between family size
and intellectual performance. However, SES differences within family size across
studies seem to explain some of the inconsistencies. That SES plays a role in produc-
ing any observed family size influence has long been recognized [Page & Grandon
1979]; that is, low SES families tend to be larger. Some studies have attempted to
control for the impact of SES through use of regression or covariance techniques
[Davie, Butler, & Goldstein 1972; Svanum & Bringle 1980; Zajonc 1976]. In other
studies, impact of family size has been analyzed within homogenized SES groups
[Belmont & Marolla 1973; Douglas 1964; Kennett 1973; Kunz & Peterson 1974].
Generally, the studies using statistical control techniques have found the correlation
between family size and the different measures of the child's intellectual perfor-
mance to be substantially reduced, but stilI significant, after the SES variance has
been removed.
The studies using selected sample techniques do not show such consistent find-
ings. Douglas [1964] and Belmont and Marolla [1973] found observable albeit much
weaker effects in upper SES as compared with lower SES groups. Kunz and Peterson
[1974], studying a sample of high-school students, found no relationship between
family size and grade-point average in either high, middle, or low SES. It should be
pointed out that since the sample was selected in high school, the lower SES groups
may not have been fully represented. Kennett and Cropley [1970], in a study of
predominantly middle to higher SES students in grades 6 through 8, found a relation-
ship between family size and IQ, but only among males from homes of relatively
lower SES (that is, lower than the sample mean). Similarly, as mentioned above,
Zajonc and Bargh [1980] found no or inconsistent family size effects on the SAT
scores of the cohorts taking the test during the first half of the 1970s. Clearly, these
cohorts are also disproportionately of middle to upper-middle SES, since they con-
stituted a sample taking the SAT for college entrance. Thus, the studies in the latter
category seem to indicate diminished importance of the family size effect in some
samples. This trend is most evident in middle- and upper-middle-class samples.
Variations in subject age have also been assumed to be associated with differences
in the manifestation of the relationship between family size and intellectual out-
comes. Similar to birth order, family size influences are assumed to be reliable and
stable in subjects over age 14. Because the studies showing a diminished family size
influence involve subjects older than 14 years, subject age is not likely to be respon-
sible for inconsistent findings. The decline in an observable family size influence on
intellectual achievement has been reflected both in studies using both standardized
measures (the SAT, for example) and teacher ratings or grades. Thus, the psycho-
metric nature of the outcome measure does not appear to provide an explanation for
the decline. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the samples that were old
enough (according to Zajonc et al. [1979]) to present the predicted family size rela-
tionship but failed to do so [Kennett & Cropley 1970; Kunz & Peterson 1974; Zajonc
& Bargh 1980] were from comparatively younger cohorts (born in the 1950s or later)
than were those in which the classical family size influence was observed [Belmont
& Marolla 1973; Douglas 1964; Zajonc 1976].
This apparent trend toward less consistent family structure influences on intellec-
tual performance is likely to be at least partly responsible for the growing body of
research questioning the confluence model [Zajonc & Markus 1975] as a reliable tool
for predicting intellectual outcomes [Brackbill & Nichols 1982; Galbraith 1982; Page
& Grandon 1979; Svanum & Bringle 1980; Zajonc & Bargh 1980]. One of the major
assumptions of the confluence model is, of course, that the family structure effect on
intellectual outcomes is indeed an empirical reality.
Psychosocial Functioning
Birth Order
Research on the influence of birth order on psychosocial functioning has suffered

from lack of control of such variables as SES and family size [Lahey, Hammer,
Crumrine, & Forehand 1980]. In addition, many of the studies are restricted to the
comparison of onlies with nononlies or firstborns with later borns. In summarizing
the literature in this area, Terhune [1974] pointed out that while the findings are
inconsistent, overall they suggest that onlies, firstborns, and in general all children
from small sibships reflect a higher degree of vitality, extroversion, and indepen-
dence. The research specifically relevant to delinquency and acting-out behavior has
consistently reported children in middle positions, especially next-to-last children, to
manifest a higher incidence of antisocial or acting-out behavior as compared with
fIrst- and last-born children [Wadsworth 1979]. There is also some evidence that
firstborns are more often referred for treatment of psychiatric problems than are in-
dividuals in other birth order positions [Lahey et al. 1980; Schrader & Leventhal
1979].
Family Size
Family size has also been found to be correlated with psychosocial outcomes. In
general, children from large families are at a disadvantage with regard to psycholog-
ical adaptation, peer group success, and degree of adherence to societal norms [Far-
rington 1978; Robins 1966; Terhune 1974]. With few exceptions, such as Eysenck
md Cookson [1969] and Wadsworth [1979], the literature in this area has been less
attentive to the need for more adequate control of SES as an intervening status
variable.
Physical Stature
In the area of physical growth, family size has shown a consistent impact and birth
order has not. Children from large families have been found to be shorter and to
weigh less [Belmont, Stein, & Susser 1975; Davie et al. 1972; Tanner 1970]. Bel-
mont et al. [1975] reported the relationship to be linear, with the exception that one-
child families were associated with lower height compared with two-child families.
Other studies [Davie et al. 1972; Douglas & Simpson 1964] indicate that the birth
order influence varies as a function of SES. In upper SES groups onlies tend to be
shorter than children from two-child families, whereas in the lower class a linear
relationship is noted.
Research findings relating family size with physical stature differ from those deal-
ing with intellectual outcomes. The replicability and conistency of the findings in the
former area have been noticeably greater. However, there is a paucity of recent re-
search activity relating family size and physical size. Thus, it is difficult to determine
whether more recent cohorts would tend to show less of a family size influence in
this area as well as in the intellectual outcome area.
Analyses of the Danish Sample
Outcome Variables
The outcome measures used in these analyses include scale scores derived from the
interview of the mother and the teacher's judgments of the child's school function-
ing. Chapter 4 includes a more detailed description of their construction and reliabil-
ity. The following scales were used:
1. General academic performance.

2. School problems.
3. Mathematics proficiency.
4. Reading proficiency.
5. Work organization skill.
6. Reasoning skill.
7. Emotionality.
8. Peer relations.
9. Aggressiveness.
10. Impulsivity.
II. Self-serving assertiveness.
12. Social responsibility.
In addition, the heights and weights of the children at ages 7 and 12 were used as
measures of physical growth. These two age levels were chosen because they repre-
sent one period of generally stable growth (age 7) and one period characterized by
considerable variation in growth patterns (the beginning of the adolescent growth
spurt). Measures of height and weight at later ages were not included due to sample
size considerations; that is, after age 12 there was a considerable decrease in the
number of subjects with school physician data due to attrition from the public school
system.
Antecedent Variables
Four data items were used in the analyses reported here as predictors: SES, sex,
family size, and birth order.
Socioeconomic Status. Svalastoga's scale [1959] provided the basis for this mea-
sure (see chapter 4). The codings range from 0 for an unskilled worker to 7 for a
person with a high academic education and occupying a leadership position.
Sex. This variable was coded 0 or I for males and females, respectively.
Family Size. This variable was directly coded as the number of siblings in the
family unit.
Birth Order. Each index child was given the numerical code of his or her sibling
position - for example, an only child was coded 1 and the youngest of three siblings
was coded 3.
Results of the Analyses
Sex Differences on the Outcomes
Means and standard deviations for all measures, by sex, are shown in table 7-1. The
numbers accompanying the means differ as a function of the number of subjects
presenting complete data on any given measure. In each case, the numbers of the
analyses reported below represent the highest number of subjects, with no missing
Table 7-1. Means and Standard Deviations of Physical Measures and Teacher
Ratings Broken Down by Sex
Males Females
Measure N M SD N M SD tt
Physical Measures
Height (7 yrs.) 304 125.4 5.5 327 124.9 5.5 1.2
Height (12 yrs.) 286 151.4 7.5 303 153.7 7.7 -3.7*
Weight (7 yrs.) 304 24.41 3.15 327 24.16 3.80 .9
Weight (12 yrs.) 286 40.05 7.02 303 42.29 8.27 -3.5*
Teacher Ratings
Reading 158 31.2 8.8 185 32.7 8.3 -1.6
Math 140 29.8 10.7 146 28.7 9.0 .9
Reasoning 157 30.6 8.6 180 30.3 8.8 .4
Work organization 160 27.8 8.3 184 33.5 7.1 -6.8*
Emotionality 155 24.2 8.9 174 24.0 8.6 .3
Peer relations 158 31.3 6.0 180 31.9 6.4 - .9
Aggression 154 22.5 9.0 173 20.4 9.1 2.1 *
Impulsivity 161 26.8 7.0 182 25.9 6.9 1.3
Self-serving 153 27.4 7.0 178 27.7 7.6 - .3
assertiveness
Social responsibility 160 33.1 6.4 181 35.5 6.5 -3.3*
School problems 410 6.0 1.8 419 5.35 1.5 5.5*
Academic 424 13.1 2.7 433 13.6 2.6 -2.4*
performance
Criminality 424 .28 .63 433 .03 .21 9.0*
tIn cases where the homogeneity of variance assumption was violated, the I-ratio was computed
using separate variance estimates.
*p < .05.
data on any of the included variables. Statistically significant differences between the
sexes were found on six of the variables. In general, females were better socialized,
with higher ratings on work organization skills and social responsibility and lower
indices for aggression and criminality. The females also reflected an earlier onset of
the adolescent growth spurt, as indicated by the significant sex differences for height
and weight at age 12.
Socioeconomic Status
Table 7-2 shows first-order partial correlations for all of the dependent variables and
SES, with sex as the partialed variable. Higher levels of socioeconomic status were
Table 7-2. Intercorrelations of Physical Measures, SES, and Adolescent Outcomes with Sex Partialed
Measure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Physical Measures
1 Height (7 yrs.) 77 74 57 12 18 20 14 -05 04 05 -05 17 10 -08 05 -04 18
2 Height (12 yrs.) 58 75 08 06 15 18 01 01 04 - 03 10 I7 -08 05 -10 14
3 Weight (7 yrs.) 76 06 10 12 14 -06 04 04 -06 15 07 -05 02 -01 13
4 Weight (12 yrs.) 00 -03 05 16 -01 -03 -03 -05 10 15 -03 -02 -08 07
Teacher Ratings
5 Reading 66 79 56 -32 42 -29 -41 37 33 -47 44 -II 29
6 Math 81 54 37 37 -26 - 40 46 27 -44 49 -17 30
7 Reasoning 58 -40 43 -31 -45 43 38 -48 46 - 12 30
8 Work organization -45 42 -40 52 43 67 -46 42 -33 15
9 Emotionality - 63 66 67 -16 - 38 26 - 25 16 - 18
10 Peer relations -40 -50 30 37 -29 24 -16 10
11 Aggression 67 11 -45 23 -25 23 -20
12 Impulsivity -13 - 47 31 - 30 22 - 16
13 Self-serving 25 -29 25 - 11 10
asserti veness
14 Social -27 21 -31 08
responsibility
Mother's Interview Indices
15 School problems - 54 20 -18
16 Academic -16 18
performance
Criminality and SES Measures
17 Criminality - 08
18 Socioeconomic
status
Note: Sample size ranged from 210-785; all correlations exceeding .12 are significant at the .05 level. In addition, the correlations for the following pairs of
variables are also significant: I and 15 , 4 and 17,5 and 17, and 7 and 17.
associated with (1) taller and heavier subjects at both ages 7 and 12, (2) higher
teacher ratings for reading, math, reasoning, work organization, peer relations, and
self-serving assertiveness, (3) lower teacher ratings for emotionality, aggression, im-
pulsivity, (4) less frequent school problems as reported by the mother, (5) higher
academic performance as reported by the mother, (6) lower levels of apprehended
criminality.
The relationships between SES and family size were also investigated, and a sig-
nificant correlation was found for SES and family size, r (785) = - .10, p < .05,
but not for SES, and birth order, r (785) = .07. The SES-family size finding repli-
cates the usual finding that larger families tend to be overrepresented in lower SES
groups.
Family Size
The association of family size with each of the 17 dependent variables was tested
using a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with SES and sex as covariates.
Five significant main effects for family size were found; the cell means are shown in
table 7-3. Inspection of table 7-3 indicates consistent family size effects on all four
physical measures; that is, children from smaller families tended to be taller and
heavier. Also noteworthy is the finding that children from families of four or more
tended to have more school problems. Post hoc comparisons indicated that the sig-
Table 7-3. Cell Means for Physical and School Problems Measures by Family Size
Number of Children in Family
Measure 1 2 3 4 or more F
Physical Measures
Height (7 125.8 (84) 125.9 (215) 124.8 (181) 123.9 (101) 3.8**
yrs.)
Height (12 153.8 (82) 153.5 (205) 152.5 (167) 150.0 (91) 5.2**
yrs.)
Weight (7 25.03 (84) 24.51 (215) 24.23 (181) 23.31 (101) 4.6**
yrs.)
Weight (12 42.12 (82) 41.50 (205) 41.06 (167) 39.01 (91) 4.6**
yrs.)
Academic Measure
School 5.40 (122) 5.58 (285) 5.50 (222) 6.11 (133) 5.6**
problems
**p = < .01.

nificant differences on all five outcomes were between children from family sizes of
one, two, and three, on the one hand, and families of four or more, on the other.
Birth Order
The effects of birth order on the dependent variables were tested using a one-way
ANCOVA, with sex, SES, and family size as the three covariates. F-ratios for the
birth order effects indicated that none was significant. However, since birth order
effects have previously shown some tendency to be less consistent in small families,
inclusion of family sizes with one and two children in the birth order analysis might
have masked a possible birth order influence in larger families. It was thus decided
to analyze the impact of birth order separately in families with two and families with
three or more children.
The analyses of families with two children offered an opportunity to attend to
some of the unresolved questions concerning the relative advantage of first- and sec-
ondborns in such families. The specific questions were, Does the Danish data sup-
port previously reported findings that (I) birth order has no significant effect on
intellectual outcomes in two-child families? and (2) firstborns are less psychologi-
cally adapted in either two- or three-child families? The analyses of birth order ef-
fects in families with three or more children involved comparisons of oldest with
youngest, oldest with middle, and youngest with middle children. In these analyses
a middle child was defined as child number 2 or 3 in four-child families, child num-
ber 2, 3, or 4 in five-child families, and so on. This series of analyses addressed two
issues: (1) Zajonc's [1976] assumption that the youngest child in large families is
especially at a disadvantage intellectually, and (2) The replicability of Wadsworth's
[1979] finding that middleborn children in large families run a greater risk of engag-
ing in antisocial behavior, that is, aggression or decreased social responsibility.
One-way ANCOVAs were used for the analyses within two-child families and
three-plus families. The significant results of these analyses are presented in tables
7--4 and 7-5. Note first that on three achievement-related variables (reading, mathe-
matics, and reasoning), the younger child in two-child families had significantly
Table 7-4. A priori Contrasts for Youngest and Oldest Children in Two-Child
Families
Teacher Ratings Youngest Child Oldest Child F* P

Reading 29.6 34.0 8.5 .004
Math 26.8 30.7 3.7 .06
Reasoning 28.6 32.6 7.7 .006
*F-ratio computed controlling for sex and socioeconomic status.
Table 7-5. ANCOVAS for Youngest, Middle, and Oldest Siblings in Families with
Three or More Children
Youngest Middle
Child Child Oldest Child
Teacher Ratings N X N X N X F* P
Emotionality 38 20.1 39 26.0 53 24.9 4.1 .02
Aggression 38 18.4 40 22.6 51 24.7 5.1 .007
Impulsivity 39 24.5 41 28.1 55 27.2 2.6 .08
Social responsibility 39 36.0 42 32.9 55 33.1 2.5 .08
*F-ratio computed controlling for sex and socioeconomic status.
lower ratings. A second trend is that older and middle children in large families ap-
peared to be less well adjusted socially. This latter finding is indicated by higher
scores on emotionality and aggression and by a tendency to show more impulsivity
and lower levels of social responsibility.
Since the central focus of these analyses was on the examination of the impact of
birth order and family size on the three categories of outcome measures, we decided
not to include a discussion of the many significant relationships found between SES
and sex and the outcome measures. Any meaningful discussion of such relationships
would be too lengthy and fall outside the planned scope of the chapter.
Discussion of the Findings
Family Size and PhYSical Growth
The analyses indicated that when SES and sex are controlled, family size showed the
most systematic relationship with the four measures of physical growth. On each of
the four measures, onlies and children from two- and three-child families were the
tallest and heaviest, and children from families of four or more children were the
shortest and lightest. The findings based on the Danish sample do not support the
findings of Belmont et al. [1975] that onlies are shorter than children from two-child
families. The important difference in this sample is clearly between children from
families with less than four children and families with more. Inspection of table 7-3
indicates a tendency for children of three-child families to be smaller than children
from one- and two-child families. This tendency, however, did not reach statistical
significance. The analyses do provide evidence of the robustness of the family size
relationship with physical growth. As noted earlier in this chapter, previous research
has found this relationship to be highly consistent across studies. This is in contrast
to the lesser degree of consistency noted in the relationship between family size and
intellectual perfonnance.
Family Size and Academic Performance
In this study, family size was significantly related to only one of the five measures of
intellectual perfonnance: the indicator of the child's school problems. None of the
teacher ratings of intellectual perfonnance reflected an association with family size.
In the case of school problems, the difference was also between children from fami-
lies with four or more children in one aggregated group and children from one-,
two-, and three-child families in another group. In view of the fact that only one
measure in this class of outcomes showed a relationship with family size (and this
relationship was rather weak), it seems reasonable to conclude that the Danish sam-
ple tends to resemble other samples born during or after the late 1950s. That is, in
comparison with earlier cohorts, the observable family size impact seems to have
diminished. Worthy of note, however, is that the school problems measure used in
this study is similar in nature to the measure of school failure, which showed a family
size influence in the large Dutch sample born in the early 1940s [Belmont et al.
1976]. In the Dutch study, however, a birth order correlation was also observed and
the association between family size and school failure appeared to be of greater sig-
nificance than is the case in the present study. Since the subjects in our study were
allover 14 years of age when the academic functioning data were collected, the
relative lack of influence of increased family size cannot be attributed to differences
in the subjects' age as discussed by Zajonc et al. [1979]. None of the psychosocial
outcome measures showed significant sensitivity to family size.
Understanding the Etiology of a Family Size Influence
The findings presented have some implications for understanding the etiology of a
family size influence on child outcomes. The relationship between family size and
physical growth has generally been explained in tenns of limited resources. That is,
large families provide a poorer nutritional level and a lowered quality of health care
in general [Terhune 1974; Belmont et al. 1975]. It has been suggested that the lower
intellectual perfonnance of children from larger families is also mediated through
such biological factors [Terhune 1974]. However, the majority of the relevant litera-
ture suggests a different, more psychological explanation for the relationship [Zajonc
1976]. The explanation centers on the lack of available adult-child interaction in the
home. While the relationship between family size and physical growth appears to be
fairly stable over time and across cohorts, there seems to be a changing pattern of
findings in the area of intellectual performance. This clearly supports the possibility
that the two relationships possess different etiologies. As noted in the chapter open-
ing, if any pattern may be detected in the inconsistent findings in the literature on
family size and intellectual achievement, it is that there has been a decreased influ-
ence of family size in younger cohorts, that is, cohorts born during the late 1950s or
later.
A more psychological etiology, such as lower quality of adult-child interaction, is
assumed to have been a determinant of the association between large family size and
lower academic performance in older cohorts. Thus, it is tempting to speculate on
the general changes in the family unit that might have influenced the magnitude and
even the nature of the relationhip observed in younger cohorts. One of the most
striking changes between family life in the 1940s and the 1970s is the sharp increase
in mothers working outside the home; the percentage of working mothers more than
doubled in the United States between 1950 and 1975 [Smith 1979]. A similar change
has occurred in Europe. As an example, only 10 percent of the mothers in the sample
reported on in this study had not been employed by the time the index child was 18
years of age. One could speculate that this change has resulted in a reduction of the
differences in the quality of adult-child interactions experienced by children from
small and large families.
Maternal employment likely results in greater exposure of the children to group-
care arrangements of one kind or another. In such settings, children from small fam-
ilies are exposed to the same adult-child interaction experiences as children from
large families and thus lose the advantage they enjoyed in those cohorts where the
mother was the sole caretaker. The emphasis at this point should be only on the
reduction of differences, not that there has been a qualitative improvement in large
families as a function of group child care. Such a hypothesis requires analyses of
maternal employment and child care within and across family sizes to determine the
absolute and differential qualitative levels of adult-child interaction under all
conditions.
Birth Order and Physical Growth
As noted earlier in the chapter, birth order has not shown a consistent relationship
with physical stature in previous research; thus the finding of no relationship between
these variables in this study is consistent with the literature.
Birth Order and Academic Performance
The lack of a birth order association with intellectual performance supports the posi-
tion that when family size and SES are controlled, birth order is also not an important
influence on children's intellectual performance. However, analyses of the Danish
sample reported here do provide some additional information about the influence of
birth order. Although birth order did not show a significant influence on intellectual
performance when SES and family size were covaried out, the analyses of children
from two-child families alone did present a significant birth order effect in favor of
firstborns. Thus, these data do not support the Glass et al. [1974] findings of no birth
order influence in small families. No explanation for the discrepancy of results is
immediately available. The fact that the Glass et al. sample probably possessed a
higher mean SES (it was selected for high school attendance) does not constitute an
acceptable explanation, since birth order effects in general have not been found to be
SES related [Belmont & Marolla 19731. Perhaps, however, SES has a different im-
pact on a sample constructed to include only two-child families than on one that
includes the whole range of family sizes. Clearly, additional research is needed to
clarify this issue. Why neither a firstborn advantage nor a lastborn disadvantage [Za-
jonc 1976] in intellectual performance is observed in the larger families of this study
is also not explainable at this point.
Birth Order and Psychosocial Functioning
Findings from the analyses of the psychosocial outcomes lend moderate support to
the fmdings reported in the literature that firstborns have elevated levels of problems
in psychosocial adaptation [Shrader & Leventhal 1979]. However, the data on the
Danish sample show middleborns to present similar levels of problems. In fact, the
overriding finding from the analyses of three-plus families can best be interpreted as
indicating a clear advantage for youngest children with regard to psychosocial adap-
tation. As mentioned, the previous literature in this area suffers from lack of control
of such important mediating variables as SES and family size. In general, studies
reporting findings directly comparable to those of this study are not available. The
apparent advantage of the youngest child in larger families has not been reported
before, but may be due to covarying out the SES influences in these analyses. It
should be noted that the finding of a birth order difference in psychosocial adaptation
was present only in the analyses of families with three or more children. Thus, the
fmding that firstborns in two-child families are less well adapted [Lahey et al. 1980]
was not replicated in the analysis of the Danish sample. It should be pointed out that
where Lahey et al. perfonned a test for sex interaction, the analyses of birth order
influence in two-child families in the present study were done with the influence of
sex covaried out.
Conclusions
The analyses presented in this chapter do not support the notion that family size and
birth order constitute important influences on child growth and development. How-
ever, the analyses presented here do provide some new infonnation, in that the influ-
ence or association of family structure is analyzed in three different outcome areas
for the same set of subjects. The findings derived from the analyses of all three out-
come areas for the Danish sample seem to mirror the consistencies and inconsisten-
cies of published studies involving usually only one outcome area for each
independent cohort. First, albeit weak, family size consistently correlates with phys-
ical growth measures. Second, the association between family variables and intellec-
tual perfonnance is inconsistent. Last, the inquiry lends support to the notion that
studies involving more recent cohorts have produced an even greater inconsistency
of findings with respect to intellectual perfonnance. The message is not to let disap-
pointment dissuade further inquiry in these areas. Rather, the message is to further
elaborate descriptions of the specific cohort environmental milieu in which the fam-
ily structure variables are embedded. The elaboration may take the fonn of refine-
ment or pennutations of extant structural variables; it may take the fonn of new
variables defmed in tenns of social and maternal characteristics; or it could take the
fonn of introducing other classes of variables in multivariate or log-linear analyses.
8 CORRELATES OF ADOLESCENT
AND YOUNG ADULT MALE CRIMINAL
BEHAVIOR
Social and environmental factors have long been recognized as having etiological
importance in the explanation of criminal behavior. In this chapter we will fIrst de-
fIne criminal behavior and review the literature to provide a comprehensive, but not
exhaustive, description of progress to date in this fIeld. Subsequently, we present the
results of a series of analyses designed to ferret out the direct or independent, as well
as indirect, relationships of selected social and familial variables with the criminal
behavior of the male subgroup of the Danish sample.
Definition of Criminal Behavior
The outcome variable analyzed in this chapter, that is, criminal behavior, is based on
registered criminal charges. The information on charges against the subjects was ob-
tained from the Danish National Police Register, in which all police contacts and
court decisions involving Danish citizens are recorded. Christiansen [1977] has de-
This chapter was written in collaboration with Linn Carothers.

The inquiry reported in this chapter was supported in part by the National Institute of Justice,
U.S. Department of Justice, Grant Number 81-IJ--CX-009, Longitudinal Study of Social and Biolog-
ical Factors in Crime.
117
scribed the registry mechanism as being without peer. He noted particularly that po-
lice officers are legally required to report all cases; if they have a suspect, they are
not permitted to make personal judgments. They are regarded as being incorruptible.
The unique quality of the information contained in the register was also praised by
Wolfgang [1977]. He said that the reliability and validity of the Danish record-keep-
ing system are viewed as almost beyond criticism; the criminal registry office in
Denmark is probably the most thorough, comprehensive, and accurate of the West-
ern world.
Thus, for the purposes of this set of analyses, an individual was defined as crimi-
nal if he appeared in this police register. "Hidden criminality" was not analyzed, due
to unavailability of information. The relatively strong evidence that the hidden crim-
inal is the less serious, less recidivistic criminal [Christie, Andenaes, & Skirbaek
1965; Hindelang, Hirschi, & Weis 1979; West & Farrington 1973], coupled with the
unbiased nature of the Danish register, justified this procedure.
Table 8-1 presents the classes of offenses listed in the Danish National Police
Register, organized according to conventional crime categories. The information
from the register was collected during 1980. At that time 27 of the 857 subjects in
the follow-up sample had to be discarded due to emigration or death, leaving a total
of 830 subjects for further analyses. Of these, 406 were males. A total of 193 were
registered as having had at least one contact with the police; 123 had two or more
registered charges against them.
Typology of Criminal Behavior
The criminality data show very little specialization. That is, the male recidivists of
this sample do not seem to specialize in a particular type of criminal behavior. Table
8-2 shows the extent of overlap of criminal activity.
Row I, one offense, is the only row whose cells are mutually exclusive. Ob-
viously, then, the cells in rows II through V do not sum to the numbers shown above.
'This data display illustrates the fact that recidivism in our sample reflects an overlap-
ping and complex pattern of offenses. For example, it is impossible to define a recid-
ivistic "thief" without acknowledging the fact that the offender probably has also
participated in other types of criminal activity as well.
Using thievery as the illustration, row II describes the offense complexity of the
recidivists in the sample. Cells lIB, 1 through 5, show the number of recidivists who
recorded two or more thievery offenses and who also participated in other types of
criminal activity. Only seven (cell lIB 1) restricted their activity to thievery; similarly,
all other cells with circled numbers indicate specialization in the referenced crime
type. The dash recorded in cell IIA I simply points to the fact that if only one thievery
offense has been recorded, the recidivism is reflected in one or more of the other
types of crime. Cell IIA3 has eight people who committed one thievery offense and
CORRELATES OF ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT MALE CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR 119
Table 8-1. Criminal Offenses by Category and Severity
Violence License Violations

robbery* driving without a license
armed robbery* violation of specific laws
domestic fight gambling
public fights weight class violations
threats false identity perjury
violence* false accusation
keeping another person prisoner* weapon laws
attempted murder*
murder* Minor Traffic, etc.
cruelty to animals traffic 1
rape* traffic 2
illegal removal of child minor violations against military law
Uncontrolled behavior: Vandalism Treason

drunkenness, loitering
warning from police Narcotic Law
irresponsible behavior
destruction of property Major Traffic
arson* manslaughter
drunken driving* involuntary causing harm to others
irresponsible driving, speeding
violations against specific conditions Sex Crimes
Thievery and Property Offenses

joy riding
minor thievery
buying and selling of stolen goods
thievery
breaking and entering*
larseny
fraud forgery*
crimes in public office*
blackmail
counterfeit money
*Offenses judged to be "severe. "
at least one violent offense. The remainder of the table may be interpreted similarly.
What is striking about the table is that only 29 of the 123 recidivists (23 percent)
restricted their criminal activity to one crime type, and 13 of the 29 were only traffic
offenders.
Table 8-2. Cell Numbers for Each Pattern of Criminality Recorded
Criminal Behavior Type
1 2 3 4 5
Uncontrolled
Number of Offenses Thievery Behavior Violence Traffic Other
I. One only 14 19 5 30 2
Recidivists
A. one 20 8 15 6
II. Thievery
B. two + (J) 41 27 26 23
A. one 21 7 18 16
III. Uncontrolled behavior
B. two + 40 (J) 32 33 29
A. one 13 15 12 8
IV. Violence
B. two + 22 23 Q) 16 14
A. one 25 29 13 17
V. Traffic
B. two + 16 22 15 @ 13
The data from this sample are not in conflict with the majority of research in this
area. Klein [1983] reviewed the findings of 33 studies examining the extent to which
the offenses of juvenile delinquents tend to show specialization rather than what
Klein calls a "cafeteria-style approach" to crime. Only four studies supported the
specialization or patterning view of delinquency; the rest either unequivocally sup-
ported the notion of no specialization (21 studies) or yielded ambiguous findings (8
studies). Klein's conclusion of a lack of specialization was corroborated in a study
by Collins and Cliff [1982], in which lack of specialization or patterning was shown
to characterize adult criminality as well as juvenile delinquency. They subjected the
complete police records of the criminal behavior committed by 28,879 Danish men
from age 15 to age at follow-up (between 27 and 31 years) to factor and cluster
analysis. The results did not support the criminal typologies suggested in the litera-
ture [Blumberg 1981; Gibbons 1965; Roebuck 1967]. Rather, the data showed one
general criminality factor and one "minor traffic offense" factor. In addition, it was
found that many offenses did not belong with either of the factors.
While the preceding discussion deals with the definition of criminal behavior,
some studies concerned with the etiology of criminal behavior have shown differ-
ences in the configurations of environmental variables related to different types of
crime, such as aggression, property offenses, incorrigibility, and so forth (Johnstone
1978b; Norland, Shover, Thornton, & James 1979]. However, they do not present a
coherent picture and are characterized by contradictory [mdings. Reconcilability is
difficult because of data source differences (for example, self-report versus record
data and differences in procedures used in scoring subtypes of criminal behavior),
including overlapping crime type patterns. In general, the analyses of Empey and
Lubeck [1971] and Wadsworth [1979] support the notion that criminality may not be
a "homogeneous phenomenon." That is, while similar environmental agents may
contribute to most criminal activity, they may possess differential discriminant ability
across criminal types or patterns.
Since the analyses presented in this chapter are concerned with the predictive
relationship between environmental and family factors and criminal behavior, we
decided to establish an analytic framework that would be as sensitive as possible to
specific types of crime (albeit overlapping). In so doing we partially avoided the
premature and possibly unjustified elimination of potentially useful data detail. Dis-
missing as artifacts the findings of those studies that did yield differential prediction
for different criminal types did not seem prudent.
However, we did elect in many of our analyses to combine juvenile and adult
offenses into a total criminal career of the subjects. This translated into an aggregate
of all offenses registered between age 15 and an average age of 21. No status
offenses (truancy, for example) were included because inclusion would distort the
etiological picture when the juvenile and adult periods were combined. While not
conclusive, there is support for such a strategy. Wadsworth [1979] showed that the
predictors of crime committed up to age 21 are similar to those for juvenile delin-
quency. Similar findings have been reported by Glueck and Glueck [1968], McCord
and McCord [1959], and West and Farrington [1977]. In large part, the rationale
rests on the fact that a great proportion of juvenile delinquents continue to commit
crimes after the juvenile period, although the motives for the crime may change
[Klein 1982].
The Predictors: Social and Family Variables of Interest
The literature strongly suggests that definitional and methodological problems have
frustrated inquiry in this area. When the predictor variables possess high colinearity
and definitional confoundment, searching for main effects using multivariate tech-
niques is a difficult task. This problem becomes clear when the relevant literature is
summarized.
FamilySES
Low socioeconomic status has long been accepted as an important predictor of delin-
quency and criminality [Johnstone 1978a; Wadsworth 1979] with the literature using
official record data showing an especially consistent effect of SES on the prevalence
of crime [Douglas 1964; Johnstone 1978; Wadsworth 1979]. However, the impor-
tance of the relationship has been challenged by researchers working with self-re-
ported data on criminality as opposed to official police records or arrest data [Dentler
& Monroe 1961; Hirschi 1969; Nye, Short, & Olesen 1958]. These researchers, and
others working with similar data, report only a trivial impact of SES and hypothesize
that the more robust relationship found in analyses of official record data is due to
the fact that low SES persons are more likely to be arrested by the police and prose-
cuted. However, Johnstone [1981] continues to argue that familial SES status is a
predictor of delinquency and crime even when the dependent variable is defined on
the basis of self-report data.
The studies of West and Farrington [1973] and Wadsworth [1979] have begun to
disclose the mediators of the SES relationship with criminal behavior. These studies
identified a series of SES correlates known to be related to criminal behavior, for
example, large family size, younger maternal age, and poor parental behavior and
supervision. After controls for such variables were imposed, a reduced but still sig-
nificant effect of low family income remained, indicating an effect of poor economic
conditions over and above the effect of those more qualitative measures of the home.
Not yet established is the extent to which this relationship is mediated by poorer
economic conditions, lower educational level, or the higher incidence of marital
breakup and instability characterizing families who started childbearing very early
[Baldwin 1976].
Family Intactness
The importance attributed to the nonintact (broken) home as a cause of later deviance
has varied over time, with considerable disagreement concerning the etiological im-
portance of the broken home (see review by McCord [1982]).
Johnstone [1981] described the major problem in this area as the failure of inves-
tigators to acknowledge the great heterogeneity within groups of nonintact as well as
intact families. The likelihood is that within both groups the full range of functioning
adequacy will be represented [Nye 1958]. Similarity of family structure does not ipso
facto imply similarity in family functioning or family atmosphere. Thus, Johnstone
[1981] suggests that continuing to focus exclusively on intact-nonintact comparisons
will mask the effects of qualitative variables that are the more likely etiological
agents of importance. For example, when nonintactness is not accompanied by pa-
rental conflict, as in the case of death, no negative consequences are observed (e.g.,
Wadsworth [1979]). Conversely, even in the intact families, parental conflict alone
is capable of producing deviance in the offspring that is usually associated with non-
intactness (e.g., Rutter [1978]).
It should be emphasized that nonintact families possess heterogeneity with respect
to parental conflict just as do intact families. That is, in some cases a family breakup
may take place without the children experiencing prolonged parental conflict, either
pre- or postdivorce. Similarly, some unmarried mothers may live quite harmoniously
with their children born outside of a marriage. As implied above, if intactness as a
structural characteristic is not systematically related to critical qualitative character-
istics, its importance as a "marker" variable is diminished.
Another variable related to nonintactness that has received considerable research
attention is timing of the breakup. Here, again, the findings reported in this area are
contradictory. The reason is likely due to lack of control for other circumstances
accompanying divorce. For example, Wadsworth [1979] found that divorces taking
place within the first five years of the child's life were more predictive of later crime,
whereas Offord, Allen, and Abrams [1978] found that the timing of guardian
changes had no influence. Still another question not conclusively answered relates to
whether family factors such as nonintactness are related to any specific type or sever-
ity of crime. While Johnstone [1978b] found family factors to predict to less serious
crimes, others have found the relationships to involve more serious antiperson of-
fenses [Chilton & Markle 1972; Wadsworth 1979]. Wilkinson [1980] referenced a
series of studies, all of which found broken homes less related to thefts than to more
"ungovernable" types of crimes. Comparisons of studies, however, are made diffi-
cult by the confoundment of definition and methodology differences.
Parental Criminality
Extensive evidence suggests that parental crime is associated with crime in children
[Farrington, Gundry, & West 1975; Robins, West, & Hetjanic 1975; Rutter 1978;
Wilson 1975]. Hypothesized explanations of the relationship between parental and
child crime include genetic, environmental, and interaction components.
Studies by Hutchings and Mednick [1974] and Mednick and Volavka [1983] have
presented evidence that suggest a genetic contribution by parents to later criminality.
Using adopted sons of criminal fathers, the studies indicate that higher prevalence of
criminality exists in adoptees with criminal fathers than in either adopted sons of
noncriminal fathers or sons raised by criminal adoptive fathers. The effect seems
particularly strong for recidivistic sons. Especially interesting is the systematic sep-
aration of genetic and environmental influence in these studies with an adoption de-
sign, since the relative contributions of nature and nurture are confounded in most
transmission studies by parental contact over some period of time.
Thus, it appears that parental influence on later child deviance may have both
genetic and environmental etiological elements. However, little precise knowledge
exists about the ways in which parental deviance exerts its environmental influence
on children. Issues of importance that require systematic attention in this regard in-
clude the importance of duration of the child's exposure to a criminal father and
whether there is a critical age at which this exposure must take place in order for the
child to be at risk for manifesting criminal behavior. Another issue involves a more
precise identification of the direct and indirect influences that parental criminality
has as it is mediated or moderated by an array of social and personal conditions that
define the family context and are likely correlated with parental criminality (SES,
parental attitudes, and the like).
The criminal parent's direct influence on the child might possess quite different
dynamics. On the one hand, the parent might have poor skills in developing and
nurturing attachment behaviors, as well as little desire to structure and supervise the
child's development. Whether or not the parent is criminal, the child could be at risk
for later criminal activity. On the other hand, the parent may indeed have established
an effective bonding or attachment, but, unfortunately, it was to a criminal person-
ality and repertoire of behavior [Lyerly & Skipper 1981]. For parental criminality to
be a variable of research interest, the issue of exposure duration and the child's age
must be addressed directly, but also in the context of the second set of issues related
to more complete descriptions of the attendant familial milieu.
Presence or absence of a criminal parent at specified ages of the child may not
show a consistent association with later child criminality across different patterns of
environmental variables. Similarly, restrictive criteria for sample selection based on
a researcher's predisposition of a variable's function might mask important informa-
tion. For example, Farrington et al. [1975] set a minimum level of the child's expo-
sure to a criminal father at three years for inclusion in a study. Apparently, they
wished only to detennine the influence of exposure-no exposure, assuming that any-
thing less than three years would be tantamount to no exposure. On the other hand,
Robins et al. [1975] allowed exposure duration to vary freely and found that children
living with their criminal fathers less than two years showed higher levels of socio-
pathy than did those who lived with a criminal father for a longer time. Opening up
the sampling frame pennitted them to speculate (however tentative) that the added
stability even for the family of a criminal father yields more protection against crim-
inal behavior in offspring than the probably less stable psychological and economic
situation of a home without a father.
To this point, referenced studies of parental criminality have emphasized the
father-son diad. Farrington et al. [1975] and Robins et al. [1975] found it difficult to
evaluate the effects of maternal crime in the relatively few cases studied so far, due
to a tendency among criminal women to marry criminal men. Several trends have
been noted. A tendency noted in the Robins study was for mother's crime to be more
strongly related to male delinquency than was paternal crime. While maternal crim-
inality appears to have an effect independent of father's crime [Farrington et al.
1975], the highest incidence of crime in offspring occurs when both parents had
committed criminal acts [Farrington et al. 1975; Robins et al. 1975].
Of importance is the reemphasis of the interdependency between and among the
qualitative descriptors of parental figures and the other environmental variables (SES
and family stability, for example). Clearly all the latter are related to criminal behav-
ior in children [West & Farrington 1973], partly via their positive correlation with
less than optimal parental behavior and attitudes, which ultimately affect the inter-
action patterns in the home.
Family Size
The general tendency of delinquents and criminals to come from large families has
been unequivocally established [Griffith & Rundle 1976; Nye 1958; Robins 1966;
Wadsworth 1979; West & Farrington 1973]. Correlates of family size that have been
suggested as active agents in the relationship between family size and criminality
include the following: overcrowding [Ferguson 1952; West & Farrington 1973]; lack
of internal and indirect control [Nye 1958]; low family income, social deprivation,
and poverty [West & Farrington 1973]; and poor parental supervision and physical
neglect [Wadsworth 1979; West & Farrington 1973].
Wadsworth [1979] found family size and crime related only for the manual skills
group, indicating, at least in part, that crime is mediated through the negative envi-
ronmental correlates of larger family size (poverty, overcrowding, lack of parental
supervision, and the like). A few have attempted to estimate family size effects with
some of these correlates held constant or statistically controlled. West and Farrington
[1973] found no relationship between family size and delinquency in the least over-
crowded homes. However, in their analyses of their total sample, controlling for
overcrowding, family income, parental supervision, and physical neglect, the
strength of the relationship between family size and delinquency was reduced, but
not completely eliminated.
Parental Attention - A Conceptual Bridge
Across all variables previously described is a common theme: the structural elements
and their environmental or social components must not obstruct the development and
availability of quality interaction between parents and child. The inferred etiological
import of the quantity and quality of parental attention to subsequent social develop-
ment has also been recognized by both psychological and sociological theory. De-
velopmental psychologists have long emphasized the importance of amount and
quality of parent-child (or surrogate parent-child) interaction in cognitive develop-
ment and emotional functioning of children. Through adequate quantity and quality
of parental attention and interaction, the earliest attachments are formed. These at-
tachments in tum become major determinants of child functioning as well as of the
quality of parent-child and child-peer interactions later in childhood [Ainsworth &
Bell 1974; Bronfenbrenner 1979; Sroufe 1979].
The importance of attachment and bonding to parental figures has also been em-
phasized by sociologists. Social control theory [Hirschi 1969] posits that criminal
behavior occurs when the bond between the individual and society is broken. The
bond to society consists of four elements: attachment to others (parents and peers),
commitment to conventional acts, involvement in conventional activities, and a be-
lief in a set of moral values shared by conventional society. Clearly, the attachment
to parents temporally precedes attachment to peers as well as to the other three ele-
ments. Thus, proponents of control theory concur with developmentalists in assign-
ing a central role to the ongoing development of interaction styles. Attachment to
parents and identification with their values (conventional and criminal) influence the
degree to which alternative peer group values are accepted [Hindelang 1973; Linden
& Hackler 1973; Lyerly & Skipper 1981]. The theoretical orientation characterizing
psychological research on attachment, as well as social control theory, appears rele-
vant to understanding the relationships between criminal behavior and the familial
variables reviewed above and treated subsequently.
Selection of Family and Social Predictors for Analysis
Selection of predictor variables was based on a distillation of the extant literature,

with an emphasis on making an incremental contribution to the definitional and
methodological concerns noted. While the main or direct effects of selected variables
were central to all of the analyses, we attempted to tease out the indirect effects as
functions of the attendant modifying or mediating conditions. The framework used
to select the variables is an analog of the general theme that runs throughout the
literature. The following is the framework and an annotated listing of the variables:
A. Family Structure and Socioec01wmic Stress

1. Socioeconomic status at follow-up (SES).
2. Family size (Fam. Size).
B. Stability of Adult Configurations: Timing and Duration
3. Number of family constellation changes after age 4 (No. Fam. Con.).
4. Number of years with biological father (Yrs. w/Fa.).
5. Dissension in intact families (Fam. Diss.). Scale score summarizing mar-
ital conflicts and family problems in selected areas, for example, moth-
er's working.
6. Stepfather entered home, ages 0--4 (Step Fa., <4).
7. Stepfather entered home, ages 5-11 (Step Fa. , 5-11).
8. Stepfather entered home, ages 12-18 (Step Fa., >12).
C. Maternal Characteristics Affecting Personal Interactions
9. Educational level (Mo. Ed.).
10. Age at birth of index child (Mo. Age).
II. Contentment (Mo. Content). Scale Score: Mother's ability to function in
her situation and her satisfaction with life in general.
12. Orderliness (Mo. Order). Scale Score: Degree to which home and moth-
er's personal appearance were orderly and neat.
13. Health (Mo. Health). Scale Score: Mother's overall health based on self-
report and clinical records.
D. Parental Role Models
14. Father crime: recidivist (Fa. Cr. Recid.).
15. Father crime: one offense (Fa. Cr. Once).
16. Mother crime: recidivist (Mo. Cr. Recid.).
17. Mother Crime: one offense (Mo. Cr. Once).
Distinguishing Offenders from Nonoffenders by Crime Type
Outcome Definition
In the initial set of analyses the outcome variable was defmed and analyzed in terms
of three separate offense types: thievery, violence, and uncontrolled behavior. Table
8-2 shows clearly that being included in the analysis of thievery does not preclude
being included in the analysis of uncontrolled behavior. The overlap among cate-
gories of offenses reflected in table 8-2 was permitted in the analysis. For example,
one who had committed two thievery offenses and one uncontrolled behavior offense
would be included in both analyses.
Clearly, if the kind and amount of overlap or confoundment are essentially the
same for all crime types being analyzed, the patterns of predictors across the crime
type analyses will likely be quite similar. Thus, the following are two major contri-
butions of these analyses:
1. Identification of patterns of antecedent variables that predict criminal behav-

ior in general (that is, separate criminal offenders from nonoffenders).
2. Clarification of the differential patterns of predictors (if any) across the crime
type categories as initially defmed.
Procedure
Stepwise discriminant function analyses were completed in an attempt to identify a

set of variables that reliably separated criminal and noncriminal groups, where the
groups were defined in terms of the specified crime types: thievery and uncontrolled
behavior. The number of violent offenses was too small to support this type of anal-
ysis. Using the results of the discriminant function analyses as a base, a subsequent
set of log-linear analyses was completed. This step seemed prudent because (1) some
of the variables possessed categorical rather than interval scale characteristics; (2)
other characteristics of interest were not readily amenable to regression techniques
(for example, variables representing amalgams of birth order and family size data);
and (3) some of the interval scales that seemed to contribute could be reduced to
categorical variables on the basis of absolute rather than normative criteria.
The log-linear analytic approach permitted us to homogenize subgroups of the
sample in terms of definable descriptive categories related to specified variables or
factors. The size of our sample precluded simultaneous analysis of more than three
factors or variables. However, the prespecified series of three-factor log-linear anal-
yses served to approximate any additive and interactive associations the predictor
variables might have with the criminal-type outcomes.
Based on the literature and the results of the discriminant function analyses, a set
of six factors was used. The levels described for each factor were defined on the
basis of preliminary analyses of required or desired sensitivity within factors:
1. Family stability: Adult changes during ages 0-4,5-11, and 12-18.

2. Presence of biological father: Never present; lived at home sometime be-
tween birth and age nine; present for nine or more years.
3. Family size: One child; two children; three or more children.

4. Socioeconomic status: Based on Svalastoga [1959], low SES (0, 1); middle
SES (2, 3,4); high SES (5, 6).
5. Father crime: No crime; one offense; two or more.
6. Mother crime: No crime; one offense; two or more.
Results and Discussion
The summary of fmdings that follows deals with both sets of analyses. The focus is
on identifying those variables that seem to have significant main effects and those
variables that tend to modify or perhaps mediate such effects. Thus, a clean variable-
by-variable organization is somewhat difficult.
Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic status in the Danish sample was derived from a scale defined in
terms of occupations rather than income. Scaling of the occupations was made on
the basis of prestige; that is, the Danish populace in effect ranked the occupations
according to their perceptions of importance and prestige.
Our findings confirmed other official record studies in showing that SES corre-
lates with criminal activity [Douglas et al. 1968; Johnstone 1978a; Wadsworth
1979]. While the results contradict West and Farrington's finding [1973] that low
family income, but not parental occupational status, is associated with crime in boys,
the results are hard to dismiss when one considers the meticulous procedures used by
the Danish Police Registry. The discriminant function analyses were carried out two
ways: in one analysis, SES was entered at the first step; in the other, SES was kept
out of the equation until the last step in order to give the correlates of SES a chance
to demonstrate their power. The first analysis showed that with SES entered at the
first step four additional variables predicted significantly to thievery: family stability,
family size, parental criminality, and maternal contentment. With the exception of
maternal contentment all of these variables remained significant when controlled for
SES. When SES was entered at the first step in the equation, it accounted for approx-
imately 10 percent of the variance. When SES was entered last in the equation, its
additive contribution was reduced to less than 3 percent. Thus, it appears that al-
though the association between SES and child thievery may be mediated or modified
by these variables, SES contributed an additional significant amount of variance not
"explained" by other familial and social variables. In the analyses predicting uncon-
trolled behavior, only one variable, number of changes in family constellation, was
significant in addition to SES.
The log-linear analyses presented further evidence concerning a suggested inter-

action of SES with the other antecedent variables. Whereas SES remained a signifi-
cant predictor of both thievery and violence when father's criminality was
controlled, the interactions between the two predictors differed in the two analyses.
In the thievery analysis, a strong influence of paternal crime was observed in all three
socioeconomic (SES) groups. In the analysis of violent offenses an association with
paternal crime was observed in the low and middle SES groups only. Thus, in the
prediction of violent crimes high SES appears to function as a buffer or protector
against the effects of a criminal father. The analyses also indicated that low SES is
more strongly related to thievery than to violence.
The analyses of thievery demonstrated that the low SES groups with noncriminal
fathers showed an incidence of thievery comparable to that of the middle and high
SES groups who had criminal fathers. Seemingly, therefore, whereas a noncriminal
father in the high SES category apparently can provide the wherewithal (money,
modeling, supervision) needed to reduce the risk of child crime, such is not the case
with the noncriminal father in the low SES category.
55
53
50 R = 2 + Offenses, by SES
1 = 1 Offense, by SES
45
40
35 35 35
c:
Q)
33
l:' 30
Q)
Q..
25
22 R .......
20 211 ~~ .. -.... -.... -....
.. -...
........ -""-.... ..........
15
13 -... R~
............
10 ....... ......
......
.... ......... ..........
; 1---------·----------. ___ _
5
•
Father None Two-Plus None Two-Plus None Two-Plus
Crime IN=40) IN =32) IN = 52) IN=31) IN = 48) IN=6)
Status
Low SES Middle SES High SES
IN = 72) IN =83) IN = 54)
Figure 8-1 . Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Thievery Offenses by Father
Crime Status and SES
In the log-linear analyses of uncontrolled behavior the independent association of

SES was washed out when paternal crime was controlled. This finding seems incon-
gruous with the results of the discriminant function analyses of uncontrolled behav-
ior, in which paternal crime did not reach significance. This apparent difference in
results is likely due to the slightly different subject selection procedure used in the
log-linear analyses (that is, the zero crime group included only cases with no re-
corded crimes of any type). Figures 8-1, 8-2, and 8-3 graphically present the inter-
action between SES and paternal crime in the prediction of the three outcomes.
When maternal crime was controlled, SES remained a significant predictor of
criminal behavior in all three offense categories. In all three analyses SES reflected
a moderate and linear relationship with number of offenses in the cells without ma-
ternal criminality. In the cells with criminal mothers SES showed a strong and linear
relationship with thievery and uncontrolled behavior. Figure 8-4 presents the rela-
tionship between SES and maternal crime in predicting thievery. The analyses pre-
dicting to violent behavior showed a rather high incidence of violence within the low
and middle SES groups of boys with criminal mothers (40 percent and 38 percent
response level), whereas no violence was recorded in the high SES group. However,
the number in the high SES group with criminal mothers was too small to yield
meaningful results (N = 2). SES remained significant when family stability was
controlled in the prediction of thievery; however, SES washed out in the violence
and uncontrolled behavior analyses when family stability was controlled.
40
35 35
33
30
R = 2+ Offenses, by SES
25 1 = 1 Offense, by SES
t:
e'"
~ 20
15
16
10

Crime (N=31) (N=23) (N=51) (N=30) (N=49) (N=4)
Status
(N = 54) (N =81) (N=53)
Figure 8-2. Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Violence Offenses by Father
Crime Status and SES
50
48
R ~ 2 + Offenses, by SES
45 1 ~ 1 Offense, by SES 43
/
40
37
35 35
30
c:
<Il
/
~
25
'et 24
20
---------
20
l'R~-
__
15 --:-- . 13
1,R - - _ _ _ '0 9
10
~ --1
R5

Crime (N~41) (N~2!J) (N~59) (N~31) (N~51) (N~ 7)
Status
(N ~ 70) (N~90)
(~=~~
Figure 8-3. Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Uncontrolled Behavior Offenses
by Father Crime Status and SES
In summary, the robustness of the SES influence was especially obvious in the
prediction of child thievery, even when controls for other variables were imposed. In
predicting violence and uncontrolled behavior, when controls were imposed for the
influence of paternal crime and family stability, the independent effect of SES that
was observed tended to disappear. Thus, at least when SES is the pivotal variable,
there is some support for the notion that differential patterns of predictors may exist
for the different crime categories.
Parental Criminality
The discriminant function analysis of thievery showed parental criminality effects

similar to those reported by Farrington et al. [1975] and Robins et al. [1975]. Both
paternal and maternal criminality predicted to offspring deviance, with the latter the
stronger of the two. While entering SES fIrst reduced their contributions, both re-
mained signifIcant predictors; the latter is consistent with the fIndings of West and
75 75
70
65
60 R = 2 + Offenses, by Mother Crime

1 = 1 Offense, by Mother Crime
55
50
45
<:
Q)
~ 40
Q) 38
Cl.
35
30
25
22
20
15
10 -- -- -- 8 - __
5
----_1 5
Low SES Middle SES High SES Low SES Middle SES High SES
IN =64) IN = 78) IN=61) IN= 12) IN = 12) IN=2)
No Mother Crime Some Mother Crime

IN =203) IN =26)
Figure 8-4. Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Thievery Offenses by SES and
Mother Crime Status and SES
Farrington [1977]. As mentioned previously, the discriminant function analyses pre-

dicting to uncontrolled behavior did not reflect a significant contribution by the pa-
rental crime variables.
The log-linear analyses confirm the general importance of paternal crime as a
predictor of child crime. They also suggest a number of other correlates that help to
clarify more specifically the patterns of social and family conditions that may define
a child at risk for criminality.
In the multivariate analyses as well as the log-linear model testing with controls,
the robustness of father crime masked what appears to be an interaction of father
crime and father presence. If the father is never present, his criminal status appears
to make no difference in the incidence of child crime. Figure 8-5 presents the anal-
yses predicting thievery using paternal crime and the amount of time the boy spent
with the father as the two predictors. As evident from the figure, in the category of
never present fathers, there is no difference between the sons of criminal and non-
criminal fathers. However, this lack of difference is due not only to the absent crim-
inal father having less of a criminogenic influence, as compared to a criminal father
who is present, but also to a heightened incidence of crimes in the noncriminal father
group. This may be due in part to the higher instability of the family resulting from
a never present father. The analyses predicting toward violence and uncontrolled
behavior showed similar result patterns overall. With regard to the question of the
60
57
55
R ~ 2 + Offenses, by Father Presence

50
1 ~ 1 Offense, by Father Presence
45 45
40
35 _ _ _
0: 35
"...''""
~33
"- 30
25
20
------
1 17 __
15
--- --
10
13 1_ - - -
---- -- -1 11
Father None Two-Plus Nona Two-Plus Nona Two-Plus

Crime (N~ 17) (N=21) (N~16) (N~26) (N~ 136) (N~51)
Status
Father Naver 1·9 Yaars Ovar 9 Yaars

Presence (N~38) (N~42) (N~ 187)
Figure 8-5. Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Thievery Offenses by Father
Crime Status and Father Presence in Home
nature of cross-generational transmission of criminality, these analyses do not favor

a genetic explanation.
When the influence of paternal criminality was analyzed with control for the other
predictors, it tended to remain significant for all three types of child crime. However,
one analysis involving family size and family stability deviated somewhat from the
pattern. The family size analyses showed that only children as a group did not reflect
a lower incidence of criminality. As reported by other investigators [Rahav 1980],
being an only child appeared to provide some protection against the negative influ-
ence of having a criminal father.
The apparent immunity of only children to the effects of paternal criminality is
not readily explainable on the basis of the literature. One possible explanation for
this is that the only-child category includes a disproportionate number of never-pres-
ent fathers (38 and 36 percent for the father crime and no crime cells, respectively,
as opposed to 14 percent for the total sample). This would account for both the ele-
vated crime rate in this group and for the apparent lack of influence of paternal recid-
ivism. Living in any unstable family environment during adolescence seemed to
generate a negative influence sufficient to negate the otherwise beneficial influence
of having a noncriminal father available.
Both maternal and paternal crime showed a clear additive contribution. Absence
of criminality in either parent did not neutralize the influence of crime by the other
parent on the criminal tendencies of the child. If both parents had a background
involving criminal activities, the incidence of criminality in sons was dramatically
increased. Sixty-two percent of the subjects with criminal records for both parents
had themselves committed thievery; 58 percent had engaged in uncontrolled behav-
ior and 50 percent, in violent criminality. Figure 8-6 presents the findings from the
analyses predicting thievery on the basis of both paternal and maternal crime.
The log-linear analyses showed uncontrolled behavior to be relatively less influ-
enced by maternal crime. Thievery was the crime type most influenced by maternal
criminal behavior. The maternal crime variable was significant when controls were
imposed for all of the other antecedent variables. The analyses that included maternal
criminality and SES deserve special mention (figure 8-4). In the cell representing
low SES and maternal criminality, 75 percent of the subjects had committed a thiev-
ery offense, as compared with 38 percent in the low SES and no maternal crime
group. In the middle SES and some maternal crime group, 33 percent had committed
a thievery offense. Thus, SES and maternal crime seems to yield additive effects
similar to those described for maternal and paternal crime. With the exception of
SES, the relationship between maternal crime and violent offenses held up when
controls were imposed for the other antecedent variables.
On the basis of the log-linear analyses it appears that whereas exposure to a crim-
inal father seems to be associated with increases in all three types of crime, exposure
to a criminal mother is especially related to increased incidence of theft in the
offspring.
Father None Two-Plus None Two-Plus

Crime (N~155) (N~77) (N~14) (N~21)
Status
Mother None Some

Crime (N~232) (N~35)
Status
Figure 8-6. Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Thievery Offenses by Father
Crime and Mother Crime Status
Family Stability
The family stability variable was defined differently in the discriminant and the log-
linear analyses. In the discriminant analyses it was represented simply by the total
number of family constellation changes experienced by the child (a constellation
change was recorded every time a change occurred in the adult configuration living
in the home; institutionalizations and hospitalizations lasting over three months were
also counted a change). In the log-linear analyses the stability variable was defmed
to reflect the child's age during unstable periods. Preliminary analyses identified
eight stability groups; these were defined in terms of whether the home was stable
during the following three age periods: 0-4, 5-11, 12+. Each period was assigned
a dichotomous rating, either stable or unstable; then combining the scores for each
period in all possible ways, eight different stability patterns were identified. After
the preliminary analyses it was found that the 0-4 age period had virtually no sensi-
tivity to criminal behavior. Thus, for the fmal analyses, only stability-instability dur-
ing latency and adolescence were taken into account. The following four groups
were included:
I. Unstable 5-11, stable 12 + .

2. Unstable 5-11, unstable 12+.
3. Stable 5-11, unstable 12+.
4. Stable5-11, stable 12 + .
The discriminant function analyses found the total number of constellations experi-
enced by the child to predict both thievery and uncontrolled behavior.
When family instability was introduced into the log-linear analyses, early adoles-
cence was clearly the most vulnerable period for the possibility of increased child
crime. Instability during the earlier period was not directly associated with increased
child crime. This finding is not consistent with the fmdings of other studies [Wads-
worth 1979]. The strong relationship between family instability and child criminality
supports the idea that instability that characteristically follows most divorces may
mediate the broken home and crime relationship. The Danish study reveals consid-
erable variability with respect to postdivorce conditions among the nonintact families
studied.
Interestingly, the father's noncriminal status is associated with decreased risk of
later child crime only if there is stability during the adolescent period. This fmding is
probably related to the fact that the father was not present during part or all of this
period, resulting in considerable uncertainty and stress for both mother and child
during a time when the child needs systematic attention, supervision, and support.
Our findings support and emphasize the importance of a more qualitative under-
standing of the family's stability associated with pre- and postdivorce [Hetherington
et al. I 979c]. The strength of stability as a predictor of criminal behavior in offspring
is underscored by its robustness across all three outcomes.
Family Size
Family size was among the significant predictors, albeit weak, in the discriminant
analyses. However, it did not reliably show an independent effect in the log-linear
analyses. When family size did approach significance, it was usually reduced to non-
significance when the models were tested with controls for the other predictors.
Increased family density in the presence of negative conditions could serve to

exacerbate the danger of risk beyond the effect of the negative condition itself. Its
importance lies in more thoroughly describing how the effects of other negative con-
ditions might interact with and be magnified by specific family structures and family
size. The findings and interpretations seem consistent with those represented in the
literature reviewed.
Analyses Within Intact Families and Within Nonintact Families
The literature review identified family discord as a possible mediator of the negative
influence of parental divorce on child criminality. In addition, empirical evidence
was presented supporting the view that the patterns of prediction of criminal behav-
ior differ between intact and nonintact family situations. In view of this finding,
discriminant function analyses were completed predicting thievery and uncontrolled
behavior of males from the two family types. In the thievery analyses within the
intact subsample, mother's recidivism, family size, family discord, and SES (in this
order) turned out to be significant predictors. Thus, the notion that family discord is
a mediator of the alleged negative consequences of divorce seems indirectly sup-
ported. That is, considerable family discord is likely to precede divorce; and since
family discord in intact families is associated with increased child criminality, it
seems plausible that discord followed by divorce would have similar negative
consequences.
The discriminant function analysis predicting to thievery in nonintact families
mirrored the results reported above for intact families. However, none of the predic-
tors reached significance in the analysis of uncontrolled behavior in the nonintact
group. The analysis predicting to uncontrolled behavior in the intact group, on the
other hand, yielded a very substantial function (Wilks A = .71). In this analysis
family dissension turned out to be the strongest predictor, accounting for 13 percent
of the variance; mother's recidivism accounted for 12 percent, and mother's age for
4 percent. The younger the mother, the more uncontrolled behavior was recorded for
the offspring. These results lend further support to the notion that family discord is
of central importance in the association between nonintactness and criminal behav-
ior. Unlike the results of the analyses predicting to thievery, the results of the anal-
yses of uncontrolled behavior were more consistent with the findings of Offord et al.
[1978]. Similar to the Offord et al. findings, the analyses showed a generally lower
predictability of crime in nonintact families and indicated that parental crime was
predictive of criminal behavior only in males from intact families.
In summary, the results reported here generally confirm and extend the literature
by demonstrating the additive and interactive character of the predictor variables.
The common denominator across the significant predictors seems to be that the de-
velopment of prosocial behavior in teenagers and young adults is dependent upon

how the predictor variables influence the general quality of the adult interaction and
identification. In this regard it should be further emphasized that paternal criminality
has its greatest negative impact on criminality of the offspring when the criminal
father is present and in continuous contact with the offspring. Further, it appears that
while great similarity exists in the patterns of variables that predict to the different
overlapping criminal types, there are differences in their order and magnitude that
could possibly be further clarified if better separation of the criminal types could be
achieved.
Within Criminal Offenders: Severity and Volume
Data from the Danish sample of recidivist criminals do not seem to reflect special-
ization in criminal profiles. In addition to the studies of Klein [1982] and Collins and
Cliff [1982], Loeber's [1982] review points to considerable empirical support for the
"variety hypothesis" that "chronic adult offenders usually show a variety of delin-
quent acts and do not specialize in particular types of crimes." If this is the case,
describing the outcome in terms of another organizing dimension might be produc-
tive, specifically, the number of criminal acts judged to be "severe." In consultation
with Buickhuisen (personal communication), the investigators starred the offenses in
table 8-1 that would be considered societally most damaging. The score recorded for
each offender was the number of starred items. The correlation between the severity
score and the total number of arrest dates was r = .92. This clearly indicates the
interchangeability of "starred" offenses and the total number of arrest dates. Shan-
non (cited in Loeber [1982]) suggests that chronic offenders do tend to commit more
serious offenses. The correlations between number of arrests and the total number of
charges in each crime category summed across all arrests further justify the use of
arrest dates as the variable measure:
Total Number Charges Correlation with Total Arrests

Violence .55
Thievery .62
Uncontrolled behavior .42
Traffic .32
In contrast to the discriminant and log-linear analyses, this analysis was con-
cerned with prediction within the criminal group only; thus, only subjects with at
least one offense were included (N = 193). It was decided, however, to drop the 30
cases with only one traffic offense from this analysis. In addition, six cases were
excluded due to missing data, leaving a total of 157 subjects. Using the same set of
predictors from the discriminant analyses, a stepwise regression analysis with simul-
taneous solution was used to predict to total number of arrest dates. The strongest
predictor was maternal nonrecidivistic crime, followed by mother's contentment and
mother's orderliness. Family size was the last significant variable to enter the equa-
tion. These four variables accounted for 15 percent of the criminal variance. Thus, it
seems that once a male had one registered charge against him, the propensity to
continue to engage in criminal behavior was predicted by a pattern of variables that
is somewhat different from the set that differentiated criminals from noncriminals.
Our data suggest that a law-abiding and well-adapted mother who has the ability to
maintain an ordered household, coupled with having a reasonably small sibship, acts
as a "protector" against her one-time offender son's becoming a recidivist.
Separating Violence and Thievery Offenders
Although the Danish study generally supports a "nonspecialization" hypothesis, we

completed our last analysis based on more restrictive and less overlapping criminal
descriptors. Our primary interest was to separate thieves and violent offenders. By
allowing other criminal activity to vary freely, 68 percent of the 123 could be cate-
gorized into one of three groups:
1. Two or more violent offenses with no thievery offenses (N = 35).

2. Two or more thievery offenses with no violent offenses (N = 14).
3. One or more thievery offenses with one or more violent offenses (N = 35).
Because of zero frequencies and small cell numbers, the preferred three-way log-
linear analyses could not be performed; instead, single-factor descriptions were
completed.
Our principal findings suggested that offenders with only thievery offenses pos-
sess lower SES than criminals with only violent offenses (X2(1) = 4.17, P < .05),
and that "nonspecialist" offenders (thievery and violent offenses) as compared to
"specialists" (theft-only or violent-only offenders) possess a significantly higher pro-
portion of "disorderly" mothers (X2(l) = 4.61, P < .05). Although restricted by
lack of analytic power, several trends with respect to comparing thievery and vio-
lence were suggested:
1. Similar age at onset of crime.

2. Similar coincidence of father crime.
3. The violence pattern has slightly more disorderly mothers.
4. The thievery pattern has a greater incidence of family instability during
adolescence.
5. The thievery pattern has a greater number of low SES members.
6. The thievery pattern has a greater incidence of mother crime.

7. The violence pattern has a greater number of three-plus sib families.
To summarize, by way of speculation, when the competition and rivalry that re-
sult from high family density is coupled with a primary caretaker who lacks the
supervisory control necessary to establish an authority and values framework, vio-
lence could become a prepotent crime choice. On the other hand, if economic duress
is coupled with a lack of a stable and/or traditional adult model during adolescence,
the chances of adequate social control being established are reduced and thievery
could well become a prepotent crime choice. Recidivists with both offenses of thiev-
ery and violence possess the worst conditions; they start their criminal careers earlier
and continue them longer.
While certainly far from adequately substantiated empirically (statistically), some
evidence appears to support the belief that if criminals who specialize at least in
thievery or violence can be identified, differential patterns of antecedent events may
be associated with each. This does not counter Wadsworth's [1979] fmdings that
both property and violent offenses are related to similar environmental factors; for
they seem to be. It does agree with Norland et al. [1979], that if sufficiently "pure"
classes of offenders can be defined, different predictive patterns of the environmental
factors may be identifiable. The trick is to define sufficiently meaningful criminal
patterns and still have a large enough sample for the power requirements of multivar-
iate statistical analysis. In the analysis just described, if we had not permitted other
criminal activity to vary (uncontrolled behavior, traffic, drugs, and the like), we
would have been able to assign only nine subjects (7 percent) to the two crime
patterns.
This analysis suggests strongly that while, in general, the nonspecialization no-
tion remains intact, there may indeed be predominant patterns of criminal activity
with differential patterns of associated environmental variables.
9 LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES
FOR ADOLESCENTS IDENTIFIED AS
AT-RISK AT BIRTH
As described in chapter 3, research on long-term developmental consequences of

perinatal complications has not shown a linear relationship between the severity of
the complications and measured developmental deviance [Kopp & Krakow 1983;
Sameroff & Chandler 1975; Sameroff & Seifer 1983]. Rather, the overall fmdings
suggest that characteristics of the postnatal social and home environment milieu are
more effective predictors of developmental outcomes than are the biological risks
that have been inferred from the presence of perinatal complications or neonatal
symptomatology. Of course, this statement must except those cases that suffer from
the more serious and incapacitating clinical syndromes. Prediction beyond early
childhood on the basis of biological risk alone has generally been too unreliable to
have any practical value, and, generally, the predictive results have fallen short of
statistical significance [Kopp & Krakow 1983; Sameroff & Seifer 1983].
However, under certain mediating conditions biological risk has been found to
have increased predictive value. When analyzed in interaction with certain dimen-
sions of the developmental milieu, the long-term developmental consequences of
biological risk have been reliably described. Depending upon the mediating condi-
tions, predicted negative developmental consequences within defined risk groups
might either be exacerbated or neutralized. As pointed out by Sameroff and Seifer
[1983], biological risk appears to have a sensitizing effect resulting in an even greater
predictive influence by the postnatal environment. Low SES and low maternal edu-
143
cation are two environmental variables that interact with biological risk to "produce"
more severe long-term problems [Broman, Nichols, & Kennedy 1975; Cohen &
Parmelee 1983; Drillien 1964; Siegel 1983]. On the other hand, a number of envi-
ronmental mediators have been shown to actually protect the biologically at-risk
child against long-term deviant or less than optimal outcomes. Some of the mediators
identified were high SES, low levels of family conflict, availability of counseling
and remedial assistance, and, in general, fewer stressful experiences. In addition,
individual characteristics of the at-risk child, such as a favorable temperament, might
also serve a protective function [Werner & Smith 1982].
As suggested above, the environmental variables mediating long-term outcomes
may include a great deal more than the global variable, SES. Clearly, breaking such
a variable as SES down into its correlated elements is a necessary step toward the
design of effective social interventions. Unfortunately, the majority of studies ex-
amining the interactive relationship of environmental conditions and medical com-
plications have focused on SES as the primary environmental descriptor. However,
evidence of a strong relationship between low SES and developmental deviance in
medically at-risk infants contributes little to defining the specitic characteristics of
the child's environment that may cause less than optimal developmental progression,
and at the same time might be amenable to preventive or remedial intervention. More
recent research has been directed toward a better description of the global SES vari-
able by attempting to identify the critical elements within the social context that in-
teract with individual characteristics to produce predictable outcomes.
One such cluster of elements has been identified as the characteristics of the
mother or primary caregiver. Drillien [1964], in an early attempt to describe mater-
nal characteristics, studied a variable she called "maternal efficiency," which was
comprised of aspects of the care received by the child. Drillien related maternal effi-
ciency to the incidence of accidents and illnesses in her premature subject group, but
did not analyze it in relation to academic outcomes. Nevertheless, Drillien recog-
nized the significance of the mother's ability to effectively organize the child's envi-
ronment in relation to the child's physical development. Mother's IQ, which may be
related to maternal efficiency, has also been shown to be associated with long-term
negative consequences in low-birth-weight infants [Werner et al. 1971]. Werner and
her colleagues further observed that the stability of the home constituted an addi-
tional significant interactive agent.
More recently, researchers from the Infant Studies Project at the University of
California, Los Angeles lBeckwith et a1. 1976; Sigman et al. 1981] have hypothe-
sized that the mediating link between early medical and neurological events and later
competencies in their preterm subjects is the interaction between infant and care-
giver. Sigman et al. [1981] concluded that the importance of environmental factors
supersedes that of early medical events and that these factors have more influence on
females than on males.
CONSEQUENCES FOR ADOLESCENTS IDENTIFIED AS AT-RISK AT BIRTH 145
Clearly, variables such as maternal efficiency or orderliness, amount and quality

of caregiver-infant interaction, and stability of the family are correlated with socio-
economic status [Bronfenbrenner 1979; and others J. When families experience eco-
nomic duress, maintaining an organized and stable home with a continuity of
attention paid to young children becomes increasingly difficult. However, many
mothers from lower social classes clearly have the resources and the ability necessary
for maintaining stable conditions in the home despite economic hardship. One pur-
pose of the present inquiry was to determine the association of a set of maternal and
home description variables that function somewhat independently of SES and whose
effects may be among the mediators of the influence of SES. Since in many instances
such variables are more amenable to manipulation than is SES, the analyses reported
here may result in heuristics useful in the design of intervention strategies. The anal-
yses also represent an attempt at identifying some of the more specific correlates of
SES that differentially influence the development of at-risk infants.
This chapter will describe the analyses of the long-term consequences of mem-
bership in several types of risk groups in the Danish sample. Sameroff and Seifer
[1983] have defined an at-risk child as "one who is at a greater than average risk for
later deviance in behavior because of membership in some identifiable population."
Two of the three risk groups analyzed in this chapter were defined on the basis of
medical variables: low birth weight and neonatal complications. The third risk group
was defined in terms of social risk: infants born to teenage mothers.
Low-Birth-Weight Infants
As evident from the comprehensive review by Kopp [1983], inquiry describing long-
term consequences for risk groups has proliferated, especially during the last decade.
A considerable amount of this research has focused on development over time of the
infant born with low birth weight [Caputo, Goldstein, & Taub 1981; Drillien, Thom-
son, & Burgoyne 1980; Neligan, Kolvin, Scott, & Gorside 1976; Weiner, Rider,
Oppell, Fischer, & Harper 1965]. Despite the improvements in neonatal medicine
that have reduced mortality and morbidity rates, the number of school-related prob-
lems of children born with low birth weight remains disproportionately high [Fran-
cis-Williams & Davies 1974; Kitchen, Ryan, Rickards, McDougall, Billson, Keir,
& Naylor 1980; Neligan et al. 1976].
However, the research on this group of at-risk infants has experienced the same
difficulty as that described for medical risk research in general: difficulty in predict-
ing outcomes on the basis of medical descriptions alone. The interactive influence of
the postnatal social and home environment milieu has been strongly and repeatedly
emphasized by researchers [Cohen & Parmelee 1983; Drillien 1964; Siegel 1983;
Weiner et al. 1965; Werner, Biennan, & French 1971; Zachau-Christiansen & Med-
nick 1981].
The analysis reported here will focus on comparisons between the low-birth-
weight subjects in the follow-up sample and the remaining full-birth-weight group.
Of the 857 subjects included in the 18-year follow-up sample, 94 were born with
birth weights below 2,500 grams. The majority of these low-birth-weight infants
were also born prematurely (that is, prior to 37 weeks gestation), although some
were full-tenn and small for gestational age [Lubchenco 1976].
The analyses comparing the low- and full-birth-weight groups showed no mean
differences on either adolescent academic achievement or psychosocial adaptation
measures. As shown in table 9-1, the outcome variables selected for use in these
analyses included a measure of overall school adaptation (school problems) obtained
from the social worker interview with the mother. This measure is similar to the
measure employed by Belmont et al. [1976] (see chapter 7). In addition, the teacher
ratings of academic skills and psychosocial functioning described in chapter 5 were
included. An analysis of the low-birth-weight group based on differences in size for
gestational age yielded no significant differences on the outcome measures [Hunt
1981].
Comparisons of the low- and full-birth-weight samples indicated that although
low birth weight serves to identify an at-risk group at birth, its residual influence
Table 9-1. Means and Standard Deviations for Low and Normal Birth Weight
Groups on Academic and Psychosocial Outcomes·
Low-Birth-Weight Normal-Birth-Weight
Group Group
Variables X a X a
Reading proficiency 29.94 9.94 32.31 8.25

Math proficiency 28.75 11.21 29.27 9.60
Work organization 30.08 8.41 30.93 8.21
School problems 5.70 1.96 5.66 1.65
Academic performance 13.20 2.73 13.39 2.68
Emotionality 25.17 8.57 23.95 8.76
Peer relations 30.50 6.02 31.76 6.22
Adult relations 38.04 7.88 36.75 8.11
Social responsibility 35.28 6.95 34.21 6.53
Concentration skills 32.02 7.42 32.33 7.66
Aggression 23.35 8.96 21.12 9.08
Withdrawal 27.88 6.06 26.48 7.48
*Variables are coded so that high scores mean that the individual possesses greater quantities of
the characteristic.
appears insignificant. This conclusion is clearly inconsistent with the literature cited
previously. However, previous studies have focused on outcome measures during
childhood, whereas the present study has used measures collected during late adoles-
cence. Since birth weight did not appear to have any direct residual effects at the end
of an l8-year period in the Danish sample, we decided to define the biological risk
groups on the basis of more specific medical symptoms. These are reported in the
next section.
Physically At-Risk Infants
As evident from the literature reviewed previously, if data on both early medical
factors and enroute, intervening social stressors are included among the independent
variables, prediction on the basis of biological risk factors may be greatly improved
[Birch & Gussow 1970; Sameroff & Chandler 1975; Werner & Smith 1977]. In this
section we will present a series of analyses that further examine the interactive asso-
ciation of medical and environmental factors in the Danish sample. In these analyses
we defined medical risk in terms of a more comprehensive indication of the infant's
physical well-being. Whereas in the preceding section medical risk was defined sim-
ply in terms of low birth weight, the criteria in these analyses were based on cumu-
lated data from the neonatal and one-year examinations of the infants (see chapters
1,2, and 3).
Selection of a Medical Risk Measure
As described in chapter 1, seven scales were developed that summarized the perina-
tal and neonatal conditions and the one-year health status of the subjects. However,
our requirement for this set of analyses was to obtain a single medical "risk" indi-
cator that described the infant's general well-being through the first year of life. Two
criteria for its development were imposed: (1) the risk measure should sample the
best indicators of overall health and development at the neonatal and one-year levels,
and (2) the risk measure should not be directly contaminated by variance that might
be attributable to elements apart from the infant. A combination of two of the seven
summary medical scales provided the best fit for these criteria. At the neonatal level,
the physical health summary measure was chosen for inclusion in the cumulative
measure. This scale was judged to provide the best overall evaluation of neonatal
status. It constitutes a comprehensive measure of the infant's congenital constitution
and physical health and functioning (cardiopulmonary, gastrointestinal, and so on)
during the first 24 hours after birth. At the same time, the neonatal physical health
measure is reasonably free of the confoundment of maternal conditions that tend to
be associated with the pregnancy and delivery complications scales. The one-year
motor development scale was chosen to represent the one-year level. This scale is
the most comprehensive measure of the overall adequacy of development at this age.
The one-year physical health scale appeared less adequate, since it is not as compre-
hensive in terms of the infant's ability to physically cope with environmental
demands.
Initially, the distribution of scores for each of the two scales was divided into three
parts to reflect conditions indicating (1) no or very slight complications, (2) low to
moderate levels of complications, and (3) severe complications. In the formulation
of the criteria for assigning subjects to the three severity categories, care was exer-
cised to ensure that the cutoff points in the distributions approximated defensible
clinical severity assignments, as opposed to simply dividing the distribution on a
normative basis. Two "cutting" scores were identified that separated the high and
low (no-severity) cases from the remaining middle group. This was accomplished by
analyzing the scale scores at the item level so that on an absolute basis clinically
distinguishable groups of cases could be specified. Thus, on the basis of clinical
judgments, the summary scores for each scale were assigned to one of three "risk"
groups: high, moderate, and low.
The Sample
The percentage of cases assigned to the high-severity category for each medical scale
was about 15 percent. The analyses reported in this chapter focused on the two ex-
treme severity groups: high and low. A subject was assigned to the high-risk group
if he or she scored in the high-complication range on one scale and the moderate
range on the other. Obviously, if a child scored in the high-complication range on
both scales, he or she was assigned to the high-risk group also. Subjects in the no- or
low-complications range on both scales comprised the low-risk group. The remain-
der of the sample, referred to as the moderate-risk group, was not included in the
series of analyses.
The subsample analyzed consisted of all cases with complete teacher-judgment
and family intactness data (N = 273). This is the same sample that was described
and used in chapter 5. The breakdown for the risk groups was as follows:
Males Females Total

Risk N % N % N %
Low 21 16 22 15 43 16
Moderate 91 71 107 74 198 72
High 16 13 16 II 32 12
128 100 145 100 273 100
Distribution of risk assignments across socioeconomic status categories indicated no

association between SES and medical risk. The percentages of high and low medical
risk across SES categories are shown below:
Percentage Medical Risk

SES High Low
Low 27 26
Middle 55 54
High 18 20
Family intactness was not systematically related to medical risk. Although it

might be suggested that medically troublesome infants could constitute a marital dis-
turbance, the variable was not reflected in the data related to divorce. Note below
that the percentages for the intact and nonintact groups were quite similar, with iden-
tical percentages for the high medical risk cells.
Medical Risk
Low Moderate High Total
Family Stability N % N % N % N %
Intact 23 17 96 71 16 12 135 100
Nonintact 20 14 102 74 26 12 138 100
Total 43 16 198 72 32 12 273 100
Of the 128 males in the sample, 16 were assigned to the high-risk group and 21 to
the low-risk group. For the 145 females, the assignment was 16 and 22, respectively.
Combined, the analyses included 75 cases: 32 high-risk and 43 low-risk infants.
Procedures
A log-linear analytic procedure was used that permitted us to analyze three-factor

contingency tables that included infant medical risk as the antecedent variable, fam-
ily intactness as the mediating variable, and in successive analyses, five adolescent
academic and psychosocial outcomes. Reference is made to chapter 8 for a descrip-
tion of the utility of the log-linear procedures for our purposes. It should be pointed
out that the analyses presented here are representative of a number of current probes
to clarify the long-term consequences of early medical risk. Our purpose was not to
be comprehensive, since this line of inquiry has just now been initiated and will be
continued for some time to come. Rather, our objective was to complete this volume
by describing our attempts to identify the interactive influence of early medical prob-
lems and mediating social conditions on long-term child outcomes. This chapter,
then, is meant to be illustrative of our fIrst efforts in this regard.
Our strategy was influenced by the previously cited literature (for example, Wer-
ner and Smith [1977]) that showed the long-term negative effects of early medical
risks to be exacerbated by the presence of environmental stressors. While there ob-
viously are many mediating "stressor" variables that should be analyzed, we have
restricted our presentation in this chapter to the analyses involving family intactness.
It was selected as the illustrative mediating variable because of its predictive robust-
ness in our previous analyses (see especially chapter 5). As an environmental "stres-
sor" variable, it remained signifIcantly associated with the adolescent outcomes even
when controls were imposed for SES and other fairly potent environmental
variables.
The four previously analyzed scales derived from teacher judgments of the ado-
lescents' behavior were used as outcome variables: mathematics profIciency, reading
skill, withdrawal tendencies, and aggresive behavior. One additional psychosocial
scale was included: impulsivity. This scale, also derived from teacher observations
of the child's behavior, was included as an outcome because of the literature that has
linked infant medical factors and later impulse control ability (for example, Wender
[1971 D.
Long-Term Correlates of Medical Risk in the Danish Sample
Reading. Figure 9-1 is a graphic representation of the log-linear analysis of med-

ical risk, family intactness, and reading proficiency. The analysis on which the figure
was based showed that both medical risk and family intactness had significant inde-
pendent associations with reading. Each remained significant when models were
tested controlling for the other. Thus, there was a combined and additive association
of the two factors with reading. Figure 9-1 helps to pinpoint where the significance
is. It appears that high medical risk in both intact and nonintact families was associ-
ated with an elevated incidence of reading difficulty. However, there was a rather
dramatic increase in the proportion of reading problems for the high-medical-risk
adolescents in nonintact families (69 percent, contrasted with 25 percent in the intact
group). It seems that even though early medical risk was associated with reading
difficulties irrespective of family status, an intact family served to somewhat reduce
the negative influence of medical risk. This illustrates the additive influence of grow-
ing up under conditions that possess both types of stress: medical vulnerability and
family instability. This point is further underscored when one looks at the rather
weak effects of family intactness when the child has experienced no medical risk (9
percent and 15 percent for the intact and nonintact groups, respectively).
75
70
65
60 /
,
69
55
/
Non·lntact /
50
/
<:It> 45
/
~ 40
It> /
a.. 35 /
V-
30 /
25
20
15 15 ,
10 9 Intact
Low High Total
Medical Risk
Figure 9-1. Percentage with Severe Reading Problems by Infant Medical Risk and
Family Intactness
Mathematics. Figure 9-2 is a graphic representation of the analysis of the mathe-

matics outcome. As was the case with reading, both antecedent variables were sig-
nificantly associated with mathematics and each remained significant when controls
were imposed for the other. The findings are identical to those for reading, except
that math in general yields a higher percentage of remedial problems irrespective of
medical risk and family instability.
Aggressivity. The data on aggression were similar to those for reading and math
in that both antecedent variables were independently associated with the outcome.
Also, each remained significant when controls were imposed for the other. The dis-
similarities are related primarily to the fact that being at risk for both antecedent
conditions had a rather dramatic additive effect (13 percent high aggression for the
high-medical-risk-intact group compared to 38 percent high aggression for the non-
intact group). As shown in figure 9-3, this is reflected against the fact that family
stability apparently buffers the negative impact of infant medical vulnerability (a 9
percent high aggression for the low-medical-risk intact group increases only slightly
to 13% for the high-medical-risk intact group). The practical significance of this
analysis is that infallt medical vulnerability needs to be accompanied by stable family
conditions in order for the child to develop adequate prosocial behaviors. On bal-
ance, the analyses of reading, mathematics, and aggression all indicate that adoles-
75
70
65
/
,75
/
60 /
55 Non·lntact /
50 /
.47
t: 45 /
Cb
~ 40 / 38
~ 35 /
30 /
Intact .28
25 25'
22
20
15
10
5
Low High Total
Medical Risk
Figure 9-2. Percentage with Severe Math Problems by Infant Medical Risk and
Family Intactness
cents who had low medical vulnerability as infants constituted a fairly homogeneous
group in terms of these outcomes, irrespective of family intactness. Further, high
medical risk seems to function similarly to the social risks examined in chapter 5.
That is, in the absence of other stresses the negative influence of infant medical vul-
nerability can likely be neutralized, at least when the outcomes are defined as aca-
demic progress and psychosocial behavior characterized as "acting out."
50
45
40 38
35 /
t:Cb 30 I
~ Non·lntact I
Cb 25 I
Q.
20 I .'9
15 I 13
9~
.11
10
5 s-
Low High Total
Medical Risk
Figure 9-3. Percentage with High Aggression by Infant Medical Risk and Family
Intactness
50
45
40 36
Non·lntact _____ ...
35
<: 30 ---------- .33
e
Q) 30"'--- -----
Q) 25
Q..
20
15
10 7
5 4~
Low High Total
Medical Risk
Figure 9-4. Percentage with High Withdrawal by Infant Medical Risk and Family
Intactness
Withdrawal. The above pattern did not hold for the withdrawal and impulsivity
scales. As reflected in the log-linear analysis and shown in figure 9-4, there was a
shift in the relative importance of the two predictors. Although the dual-risk group
showed the highest withdrawal scores, nonintactness is clearly the more important
variable. Although family intactness and medical risk both had significant indepen-
dent associations with the outcome, when controls were imposed for intactness the
contribution of medical risk washed out. This suggests that the tendency to withdraw
is more a function of social determinants or mediators than it is of early medical
factors.
ImpUlsivity. The analysis of the impulsivity scale yielded yet a different picture.
The analysis showed that only the medical risk factor had a significant independent
association with adolescent impulse controL Family intactness reflected virtually no
association with impulsivity. Figure 9-5 shows the percentages of high impulsivity
for each subgroup. Clearly, there is a rather dramatic increase in impUlsivity from
the low- to the high-medical-risk groups (9 and 10 percent to 50 and 56 percent,
respectively). Impulsivity appears to be etiologically more related to constitutional
factors than it is to environmental factors.
Summary
The analyses of the long-term adolescent correlates of the cumulative medical risk
variable support the literature in that early medical vulnerability did lead to later
negative consequences for academic functioning. The negative consequences were
. ""
60 56
~"
55
50 /
45
/
t:III
~
40
35
30
Non.lntact//
/
Intact """.31
III
Q. / .26
25
/
20 /
15 /
10 '0\
9
Low High Total
Medical Risk
Figure 9-5. Percentage with High Impulsivity by Infant Medical Risk and Family
Intactness
heightened when social stress factors were introduced. Without social stress (in this
case, family instability), medical risk showed only a weak association with later ac-
ademic difficulty.
The analysis of aggressivity also appear congruent with literature reports of in-
creased incidence of behavior disorders in children exposed to cumulative medical
and social risk factors [Werner & Smith 19821. On the other hand, withdrawal
showed only a small and statistically nonsignificant independent association with
medical risk. Impulsivity in adolescence clearly seems to be associated with early
infant medical vulnerability, irrespective of the presence of intervening social fac-
tors. This finding strongly supports the position that there is organic involvement in
cases with impulse control difficulties [Wender 19711.
All in all, the analyses described emphasize the importance of conducting further
research to determine the differential interactive patterns between medical and social
risk factors. Although social risk factors appear to be the stronger predictors of long-
term outcomes [Sameroff & Chandler 1975], the long-term impact of medical risk
cannot be dismissed. Put another way, assuming the presence of early medical vul-
nerability, if any social risk that accompanies the medical risk is not reduced or elim-
inated, the negative consequences to the child will be far greater than would have
been the case with social risk alone.
The Teenage Mother and Her Socially At-Risk Infant
A series of studies has shown that children born to teenage mothers perform less well
in the areas of academic and behavioral functioning during early and middle child-
hood [Broman 1981; Furstenberg 1976; lobI, Welcher, & Mellits 1971; Morrow
1979; Oppel & Royston 1971]. Because of the lack of studies that follow such chil-
dren into adolescence, relatively little is known about their functioning at the later
age level. However, it is known that females born to teenage mothers tend to become
teenage mothers themselves [Alan Guttmacher Institute 1981].
This section of the chapter presents some analyses that address the long-term out-
comes of children born to teenage mothers in the Danish sample.
The Nature of Risk in Teenage Childbearing
Medical Risk. A series of studies has reported a higher incidence of medical risk
in infants born to teenagers. Increases in perinatal mortality, low birth weight, and
perinatal complications have been found [Aznar & Bennett 1961; Dott & Fort 1976;
McAnamey 1978; Menken 1972]. On the other hand, a few studies have shown that
when adequate pre- and perinatal medical care is provided, the differences disappear
[Gill, Illsley, & Koplik 1970; Mednick, Baker, & Sutton-Smith 1979; Osofsky &
Osofsky 1970; Zackler, Andelman, & Bauer 1969]. As described in chapter 2, the
data from the Danish perinatal sample present strong evidence in support of this latter
effect. Children born to teenage women in the Danish sample do not constitute a risk
group defined on the basis of biological factors.
Social Risk. Teenage childbearing has been found to possess a number of educa-
tional and social consequences for the mother herself: truncated maternal education
and unemployment, restricted social life, additional unanted pregnancies, low SES,
unstable family situation, and an assortment of increased psychological stresses. In
general, the condition has been characterized as a "syndrome of failure" [Brown,
Adams, & Kellman 1981; Furstenberg 1976; McHenry, Walters, & Johnson 1979;
Moore & Waite 1977; Phipps-Yonas 1980]. A home environment characterized by
any combination of these social stresses is likely to constitute a less than optimal
developmental milieu for the offspring. As suggested by Furstenberg [1976], these
social correlates of being a teenage childbearer must be viewed as significant media-
tors of the association between teenage pregnancy and negative child outcomes.
Since no postnatal preventive intervention was carried out with the Danish perinatal
sample, there is reason to believe that the homes of the teenage mothers in this sam-
ple will have experienced their share of increased social stress. Thus, the children
born to teenagers in this sample must be viewed as socially at risk. It should be
emphasized that the data for this group of mothers are not contaminated by the cu-
mulative effect of medical and social risk factors generally found in studies of teen-
age childbearing. In view of this, we must assume that the problems observed in the
children of teenage mothers in this sample are likely underestimates of develop-
mental deviancy found in the general population.
The purpose of the analyses described here is to determine whether children of

teenage mothers differ from those of older mothers with respect to assessments of
academic and psychosocial functioning in adolescence. In addition, an attempt has
been made to identify the environmental correlates that appear to function as media-
tors of the observed differences.
From the subsample with complete teacher questionnaire data, 60 children were
identified as having been born to women under 19 years of age. These children were
compared with the rest of the teacher questionnaire sample on three outcome mea-
sures: academic performance, aggressivity, and withdrawal behavior. These three
measures were scales constructed on the basis of a factor analysis of a selected set of
behavioral scales representing relevant information derived from the mother inter-
view and the teacher questionnaire (see chapter 4). The academic performance mea-
sure was constituted by a single score based on four scales: the mother's ratings of
the child's school problems and academic performance, and the teacher's ratings of
the child's reading and math skills. The intercorrelation among these four scales
ranged from .45 to .64. The aggressivity measure was a factor score based on the
teacher's ratings of the child's aggression, impulsivity, and adult relations. The inter-
correlations among these three measures ranged from .54 to .69. The withdrawal
measure consisted of a factor score involving the teacher's rating of the child's peer
relations, withdrawal tendencies, and fearfulness. The intercorrelations ranged from
.62 to .80.
Predictor Variables
In order to assess the generalizability to our sample of the notion that consequences
are associated with early childbearing, the two mother age groups (teen vs. older
mothers) were compared on a number of maternal and environmental variables. We
selected those data items from the maternal interviews that most closely approxi-
mated the "syndrome of failure" that has been documented by numerous researchers
(e.g., Furstenberg [1976] and Moore and Waite [1977]).
The following predictors were included in the analysis:
1. Highest school grade completed by the mother.

2. Socioeconomic status.
3. Number offarnily constellations.
4. Mother's overall contentment.
5. Family size.
6. Total length of time the mother was employed.
Table 9-2. Means and Standard Deviations for Familial and Maternal
Characteristics by Mother's Age at Birth of First Child
Teen Mothers Older Mothers
Variable M SD M SD
Total number of family constellations 3.60 2.49 1.94 1.83*

Mother's completed school gradet 1.60 .97 2.89 2.14*
Mother's contentment 12.48 2.28 12.99 2.12
Mother's total work time after index birth 133.20 61.02 114.29 66.43
SES 1.89 1.53 3.17 2.06*
Family size 2.65 .99 2.43 l.l5
*p < .01.
tFor variable Mother's Completed School Grade, 1 = 7th grade, 2 = 8th grade, 3 = 9th grade.
Table 9-2 shows the means and standard deviations of the predictor variables for the
two mother age groups. As table 9-2 indicates, the mothers who began childbearing
during their teens were indeed at a disadvantage over the long term with regard to
educational attainment, socioeconomic status, and the stability of family situations.
No significant differences were found between the mother age groups with respect to
mother's contentment, employment history, and ultimate family size. In fact, rather
than suffering greater unemployment, teenage mothers were employed for longer
periods of time overall (albeit in lower level occupations). These results lend support
to the notion that there are familial, economic, and educational risks associated with
the early onset of childbearing. Further, the results identify the mother's educational
level, SES, and family instability as the negative correlates of early childbearing in
this sample.
The differences between the children of the two mother age groups on the three
outcome variables (academic performance, aggression, and withdrawal) were ana-
lyzed in a three-way ANOVA. In addition to group status, the child's sex and birth
order (firstborn vs. laterborn) were included as independent variables. The results of
the three-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for mother's age on the
academic performance factor (F(2,236) = 8.88, p < .01), with children of teen
mothers performing less well than children of older mothers. No sex or birth order
effects were evident; although, this might have been due to the small number (N =
18) of laterborn children of teen mothers in our sample.
On the aggressivity scale, a significant main effect for mother's age was found
(F(l,236) = 14.37, p < .01), with children of teen mothers demonstrating more
highly aggressive behavior. No significant main effects were found for the third fac-
tor, withdrawal.
Academic Performance
A stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the relative im-
pact of mother's age at fIrst birth and the identifIed correlates of early childbearing
on the child's long-term academic performance. Of the variables entered into the
regression equation, mother's highest completed school grade, SES, and the total
number of family constellations experienced by the child since birth were found to
be signifIcant predictors of the child's later academic performance (R 2 = .18), with
mother's highest completed school grade being the strongest predictor (R 2 = .12).
Mother's age was not a signifIcant predictor when these three variables were con-
trolled. Results of this analysis are reported in table 9-3.
Aggression
A similar stepwise regression analysis was completed for aggression. The total num-
ber of family constellations experienced by the child since birth was the strongest
predictor of later aggressive behavior (R 2 = .12), although mother's completed
school grade was also signifIcant. Mother's age and SES did not provide signifIcant
contributions to the prediction of aggressivity when the number of constellations and
mother's highest school grade were controlled. A summary of the results for this
analysis is found in table 9-4.
Summary
The results of these analyses support the "at risk" characterization of infants of ado-
lescent mothers with regard to economic status, educational attainment, and familial
Table 9-3. Summary of Stepwise Mulitple Regression Analysis for Academic

Performance
Unique
Independent Variable Simple R Mulitple R R2 F-ratio Contribution
Mother's completed school .3512 .3512 .1233 10.277* .1233

grade
SES .3453 .3964 .1571 7.430* .0337
Total number of -.1665 .4200 .1764 4.250* .0193
constellations
Mother's age at first birth .1921 .4211 .1773 .2510 .0008
*p < .01.
Table 9-4. Summary of Stepwise Mulitple Regression Analysis for Aggressivity
Unique
Independent Variable Simple R Mulitple R R' F-ratio Contribution
Total number of .3429 .3429 .1176 23.543* .1176

constellations
Mother's completed school .2321 .4094 .1676 5.138* .0500
grade
Mother's age at first birth -.2421 .4175 .1743 1.532 .0067
SES -.2131 .4215 .1777 .937 .0033
*p < .01.
support. The results also indicate that children of teenage mothers in our sample
suffered from long-term deficits in academic and psychosocial functioning when
compared with children of older mothers. However, maternal age itself may not be
considered the significant influence in these areas. The regression analyses clearly
showed that the apparent influence of maternal age was actually due to maternal and
environmental variables that covaried with early childbearing. The significant co-
variates differed as a function of the analyzed outcome; that is, some characteristics
of the mother or the childbearing conditions she created were more related to the
academic performance of her offspring, whereas others were more related to
aggressivity.
Overall, the pattern of predictors for the different outcomes replicated the findings
reported in earlier chapters of this book. Indeed, teenage motherhood places the in-
fant at risk, at least in this sample. It appears that the risk may not be attributed to
the mother's age exclusively, but rather to the tendency for this condition to covary
with a set of environmental stressors that are themselves associated with impaired
developmental progression irrespective of maternal age. There was no residual con-
tribution of maternal age when controls were imposed in our analyses for these gen-
eral social stressors. Again, we should emphasize that developmental deficiencies
observed in the children of teenage mothers in this sample were more than likely less
severe than would have been the case in more representative population samples.
This is due to the fact that access to quality medical care during pregnancy virtually
eliminated confoundment of perinatal risk factors with the social stressors in the lives
of these children.
In spite of the successful reduction of initial biological vulnerability for the chil-
dren of these teenage mothers, our findings clearly identified the children as at risk
for future development problems. The fmdings further reinforce the conclusions of
other researchers [Brown et al. 1981; Furstenberg 1976] that programs should be
geared toward the longer term rather than to crisis intervention.
One fmal point should be made: the homes of teenage mothers may not be char-
acterized as possessing a set of social stressors particularly unique to them. On bal-
ance, the data seem to suggest that preventive intervention programs aimed at
socially at-risk groups in general would likely be quite as effective in improving the
developmental outcomes for children of teenage mothers specifically.
Epilogue: Implications for Intervention and Social Policy
Development
The inquiry described in the preceding nine chapters focused on four classes of out-
come variables that occurred at different but overlapping ages of the Danish cohort.
The outcomes were analyzed in association with an array of medical, familial, and
social events that took place over the lives of the adolescents and young adults. The
diagram shown below depicts the general framework of variables:
Age of Index Child

-9 months 0-1.- - - - - - - - - - .... 16-18 . . - - - .... 23
Physical Health 2. 1 Academic Performance 1

Outcomes I. Motor Development
Neurological Development 3.1 Psychosocial Adaptation 1
4.1 Registered Criminal Behavior 1
Codification of specific medical events, family structure variables, social ___

Predictors.. ---
experiences, maternal characteristics, etc.
Our purpose in this epilogue is not simply to summarize the principal findings and
draw a few warranted conclusions. Rather, our purpose is to address some of the
issues related to the process of defining reasonable implications of our fmdings for
further research, intervention, and social policy development. From our perspective,
the issues relate primarily to how we describe our fmdings in terms of the following
considerations:
161
162 EPILOGUE
1. Degree to which the descriptions of the behavioral and physical components

of the outcomes are direct measures.
2. Relevance of the environmental and personal contexts in which the outcomes
were measured.
3. Extent to which the correlated physical and social variables adequately de-
scribe the etiological elements.
4. Extent to which the controlling antecedent variables are directly
manipulable.
5. Extent to which the contingent relations between antecedents and outcomes
are time- and age-sensitive.
When our findings are reflected against the above five considerations, it becomes
clear that there are differential implications for research, intervention, and social pol-
icy, depending primarily upon the set of outcomes being considered. Returning to
the framework of variables, the outcomes can be grouped into two definable cate-
gories. The first category includes outcome area 1, whose primary contingent rela-
tionships may be defined as possessing primarily physiological components in both
the antecedent and outcome variables. This is not to say that social variables are not
involved; clearly, they are in the sense that social circumstance may mediate both the
physical problem itself and the ability to access treatment for the condition. Thus,
social or environmental variables are manipulated on the premise that they will either
enhance the effectiveness of medical treatment or will prevent the condition's
occurrence.
The second category includes outcome areas 2,3, and 4. These are academic and
behavioral outcomes that are comparatively more affected by complex patterns of
social variables. Here we must recognize that while physiological variables are un-
doubtedly involved, the primary contingent relationships are between patterns of an-
tecedent and contemporary social variables and specified observations of human
behavior. Whereas in the medical model the treatment normally involves standard
and well-verified procedures, the treatment for academic and psychosocial behav-
ioral problems using a social-ecological model is not so clear-cut. The effectiveness
of this model depends upon the reduction of considerable uncertainty surrounding all
five of the considerations noted above.
The remainder of the epilogue will center on how our findings have differential
implications that are dependent upon which outcome category is considered. Essen-
tially, we contend that the analyses described in the first three chapters support fur-
ther research and the design of intervention strategies that exploit a medical treatment
and prevention model. The latter six chapters have strong heuristic value for contin-
ued research aimed at further clarification of the underlying processes and prelimi-
nary intervention strategies.
EPILOGUE 163
Implications for the Infant Health Area
The generally observed adverse effects of less than optimal social conditions on peri-
natal and neonatal outcomes appear to be largely mediated by differences in the qual-
ity of the medical services available to persons from different social backgrounds
rather than by a more direct impact of the mother's environment during pregnancy
on the developing fetus. The probable explanation for the lack of effect of environ-
mental variables on peri- and neonatal outcomes in this study is that the sample mem-
bers in every case received thorough medical care irrespective of SES and other
social factors. This is clearly in contrast to the general population, where social fac-
tors are known to be associated with the quality of the medical care available.
Results of the analyses of the one-year outcomes are more consistent with the
literature than is the case at the neonatal level. This is logical, since the conditions of
the sample during the fIrst year of life more closely resemble the characteristics of
infants in the general population. That is, after discharge, the mother-child pairs were
left alone by the project staff until the one-year follow-up. Analyses of one-year
medical outcomes do begin to present evidence of environmental effects, at least as
far as the infants' physical health is concerned. The negative impact of institutional
day care and SES on physical health indicates that when there is a break in the con-
tinuity of preventive medical care delivered, environmental variables do have early
effects on infant health. The neurological and motor functioning of the infants did
not show signifIcant environmental influences.
Whereas environmental variables do not appear to contribute strongly to early
infant medical outcomes, prevention of negative outcomes does indeed involve so-
cial intervention. Provision of accessible medical services necessitates organizational
cooperation among institutions in delivering the prescribed medical treatment early
enough to ensure some impact on reducing the effects of negative social aspects.
Some evidence also suggests that parenting experience, motivation, and the avail-
ability of a nurturing adult have an early impact on infant health.
The intervention and social policy implications empirically supported by our in-
quiry seem clear. The specifIc service delivery mechanisms used would depend upon
whether the major objectives were treatment or prevention.
Medical Treatment Paradigm
The important characteristic of an intervention procedure that emphasizes treatment

is that the focus is almost exclusively on physiological antecedent and outcome vari-
ables; little or no systematic attention is given to early environmental influences.
Thus, for example, if teenage pregnancy is associated with a set of negative physio-
164 EPILOGUE
logical assessment results and negative infant outcomes, the objective of the clinic is
to improve the physical conditions that influence the outcome of pregnancy. While
such a medical paradigm does not deny the importance of antecedent social events,
the context in which medical treatment is provided does not permit convenient access
to manipulable nonmedical variables in either a research or service mode. Therefore,
it becomes necessary to defme functional relationships that are restricted to specified
medical care for specified sets of physical conditions. For example, if a set of physi-
cal conditions exists in some regular pattern, it is convenient to assign the pattern a
label such as "physiological insufficiency." This is particularly true if there is an
effective treatment protocol.
Medical Prevention Paradigm
"Treating the condition" is quite defensible in a hospital or clinic context. However,

from a researcher's view the resulting intervention strategies tend to contribute tc
"hardening of the medical categories," and to neglect of the contribution of earl)
nonmedical or environmental influences. That is, clinical labels are assigned to clus-
ters of commonly associated physiological measures and standard medical treat-
ments are prescribed. While the results are generally quite satisfactory, they ofter
come unnecessarily late and we are little closer to effectively preventing the negativf
antecedent conditions themselves from occurring. If one wishes to "prevent the con·
dition," physiological problems cannot be viewed as their own cause or as inherenl
in the mother. The embedding environment certainly constitutes a confounding sel
of influencing factors. Returning to the example of teenage pregnancy, acceptin~
"physiological insufficiency" as explanatory without considering the interacting ef-
fects of environment would restrict considerably the development of preventive in-
tervention strategies for treatment of the preconditions as well as the intermediatf
and long-term outcomes for infants and mothers.
Chapters I, 2, and 3 describe the promise of systemically considering the inter·
action of environmental and physiological factors in the design of medical preventivf
intervention strategies.
Implications for the Adolescent Academic and Psychosocial

Outcome Areas
As social variables emerge as important correlates of long-term outcomes, the impli·

cations for intervention are not so clear. The antecedent variables we addressed ir
the previous chapters were structural, status, or marker variables that defined fairl)
accurately and comprehensively aspects of the child's general environmental miliel
EPILOGUE 165
over the total period. The relationships found between the observed patterns of an-
tecedents and the specified outcomes can take on real meaning only when the un-
measured psychological and sociological covariates are identified and the underlying
processes tentatively defined. Our findings certainly have heuristic value for the for-
mulation of further research, but caution is strongly suggested in moving impatiently
toward the design of social or personal intervention on the basis of these findings. As
emphasized in chapter 4, such variables as socioeconomic status and divorce do not
cause anything. The important etiological elements are likely the unmeasured char-
acteristics of the home and child that are correlated with SES and divorce.
To immediately formulate social policy or to implement some sort of family inter-
vention strategy on the basis of empirically verified relationships at the level of our
analyses is to ignore several rather fundamental issues. First, at this aggregated level
of analysis the actionable conclusions one might draw (to be generalized to lower
levels of aggregation) are fraught with an intolerable number of both false positives
and negatives. For example, in chapter 5, we showed that for the total sample non-
intactness was independently associated with negative outcomes in adolescence.
However, further sleuthing told us almost immediately that there were many children
whom we would have predicted on the basis of our data to be at risk but who subse-
quently did not apparently suffer any negative consequences in adolescence, at least
as defined by the academic and psychosocial assessments used.
We reduced considerably the number of false positives when additional mediating
or modifying variables were introduced into the analyses. Continuing with the family
intactness example used above, it was discovered that such mediating conditions as
high SES, high maternal education, and high maternal orderliness served as "buff-
ers" against potentially negative consequences of nonintactness or divorce. Thus,
the effects of divorce have to be analyzed as a process that is embedded in a complex
social context.
We have emphasized before that the variables analyzed represent labels of a range
of environmental contexts. They constitute "windows" through which we can catch
a glimpse of the possible underlying processes, in the hopes that our speculations
will lead to greater precision at a level of analysis closer yet to manipulable etiologi-
cal variables. An example of a "window" and the resulting speculations may be
found in our analyses of family size. In chapter 7 we found that contrary to studies
of cohorts born in the early 1940s, a family size effect in the Danish cohort born
during 1959-1961 did not surface. It was speculated that the negative association
between family size and academic performance in the pre-1950 cohorts was me-
diated by the lack of availability of quality adult-child interaction in the home [Za-
jonc 1976]. Staying with this more psychological etiology, we were tempted to
further speculate that the reason our post-1950 cohort did not reflect such a relation-
ship could be traced to rather striking changes that took place in the family from the
pre- to the post-1950s: somewhat smaller sibships on the average, more maternal
166 EPILOGUE
employment, and more exposure of children to group-care arrangements. Thus this

could very well translate into a reduction of the qualitative differences in adult-child
interactions between small and large families due to the socialization process that
children experienced who received nonmaternal group day care. However, before
extolling the virtues of group day care for everybody, it should be emphasized that
the finding points to a reduction of differences between small and large families only,
not that there has been a qualitative improvement in large families.
The point is that if this is your view of the underlying processes, you must then
commit yourself to still another level of empirical analysis that involves the use of
direct observational techniques in the natural environment. The hypotheses implied
by this description of the etiology require the determination of the absolute and dif-
ferential qualitative levels of adult-child interaction under all conditions, with special
sensitivity to maternal employment and child-care histories within and across family
sizes. To bypass this level of inquiry in favor of implementing intervention strategies
on the basis of the direct and mediated relationships of the familial and social vari-
ables that we and others have analyzed is to put yourself at risk in at least two ways.
First, you might promote stereotyped and possibly incorrect notions of causality,
and, second, you will likely put pressure on the parents to conform to a mode of
parenting that is at best nonessential and at worst totally incongruent with their atti-
tudes, perceptions, and capabilities.
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Author Index
Abrams, N., 123, 138 Blanchard, R.W., 61

Adams, R.C., 155, 159 Bloom, B.L., 64
Ainsworth, M., 126 Blumberg, A.S., 121
Airasian, R.W., 56 Boike. M.E, 61,79
Alberman, E.D., 18 Boone, S.L., 61
Alexson, J., 83 Brackbill, Y, 105
Allen, N., 123, 138 Brim, O.G., Jr., 102, liS
Andelman, S.L., 155 Bringle, R.G., 61, 102, 104, 105
Andenaes, J., 118 Brock, W., 92, 93, 94, 98
Anthony, E.J., 60, 79 Broman, A., 7, 8, 33, 61,144
Asher, SJ., 64 Broman, S.H., 155
Aznar, R., 155 Bronfenbrenner, U., 33, 57,126,145
Brown, H., ISS, 159
Bacon, R., 19 Buchanan, A.D., 56
Bailey, G.D., 56 Burk, H.E, 55
Baizerman, M., 15,38 Burgoyne, K., 145
Baker,R.L., 7, II, 15,20, 155 Burnip, S.R., 32
Baldwin, W.H., 29, 38, 39 Butler, N.R., 18, 104, 106
Balow, B., 43
Bargh, J., 102, 103, 104, 105 Cain, Y. w., 29
Bauer, E, 155 Camara, K.A., 79
Bayley, N., 33 Campbell, D.T., 15
Beckwith, L., 32, 33, 38,144 Caputo, D.Y., 32, 33, 104, 105, 145
Bierman, J.M., 8,18,23,32,33,144,145 Cassell, R.N., 55
Bell,S., 126 Chamberlain, G., 6, 8, 18, 19,20,21
Belmont, L., 102, 103, 104, 105, 112, 113, Chamberlain, R., 6, 8,18,19,20,21
115,146 Chandler, MJ., 29, 37,143,147,154
Belsky, J., 92 Chilton, RJ., 123
Bennet, A.E., 155 Christiansen, K. 0., I 17
Bent, D.H., 53 Christie, N., 118
Berbaum, M.L., 103 Claireaux, A., 6, 8,18,19,20,21
Berendes, H., 32 Cliff, N., 121, 139
Berg-Cross, L., 65 Clifford, S.H., 20
Biller, H.B., 60, 61 Cohen, J., 25
Bilson, EA., 145 Cohen, L.B., 32
Birch, H., 29, 33, 147 Cohen, P., 25
181
182 AUTHOR INDEX
Cohen, S.E., 32, 33, 144, 145 Goldstein, K.M., 32, 33,145
Collins, L.M., 121, 139 Gordon, M., 6,18,19,21,22,27
Cook, T.D., 15 Grandon, G.M., 104, 105
Cox, M., 62, 65, 66, 79,137 Griffiths, A.W., 125
Cox, R., 62, 65, 66, 79, 137 Gundry, G.K., 124, 125, 132
Cropley, A.J., 104, 105 Gussow, e.D., 29, 33,147
Crumrine, P.L., 105, 115
Hackler, 1., 126
DeLeeuw, L., 89 Hallock, N., 32
Deur, J.L., 60 Haimes, P.E., 55
Davie, R., 104, 106 Hammer, D., 105, 115
Dentler, R.A., 122 Hansen, 1., 61
Dott, A.B., 18,38,155 Hanson, R.A., 56
Douglas, J.W.B., 105, 122, 129 Harper, P.A., 145, 146
Drage, J.S., 32 Henig, C., 89
Drillien, e.M .. 29, 33, 144, 145 Herjanic, B.L., 124, 125, 132
Herzog, E., 60, 63, 79
Edwards, I.H., 38,102 Hess, R.D., 79
Ellison, D.L., 15 Hetherington, E.M., 59, 60, 62, 64, 65, 66, 79,
Emery. R.E., 65 137
Empey, L.T., 121 Hindelang,M.l., 118, 126
Ensminger, M.E., 38, 39, 60 Hirschi, T., 118, 122, 126
Etaugh, e., 87, 92 Hocevar, D., II, 15,20
Everly, K., 59 Hoffman, L.W., 81, 82, 87, 89, 90
Eysenck, H.J., 56,102,103, 105 Honzik, M.P., 32
Hoover, D.B., 32
Farrington, D.P., 105, 118, 122, 124, 125, 129, Howlett, B., 6, 8, 18, 19,20,21
132 Hubbell, v., 93, 94
Feiner, R.D., 61, 79 Hull, e.H., 53
Ferguson, T., 125 Hunt, J.v., 32
Ferri, E., 61 Hutchings, G., 124
Field, B.e., 19,32 Hutchings, 1.1., 32
Field, T.M., 29, 32
Fischer, L.K., 145, 146 IIIsley, R., 19, 155
Fitzhardinge, P.M., 32
Forehand,R.L., 105, 115 Jacklin, e.N., 28
Forsythe, A.B., 32, 144 James, J., 121, 144
Fort, A.T., 18,38, 155 Jankowsky, 1.1., 33
Francis-Williams, J., 145 Janson, e.G., 1,45
French, EE., 8, 18,23,32, 144, 145 lellinek, M.S., 59
Friedman, E.A., 32 lenkins, J.G., 53
Furstenberg, EE, 155, 156, 159 lohnson, e., 155
lohnstone, J.W.e., 121, 122, 123, 129
Galbraith, R.e., 105
Gardner, R., 65 Kagan, 1., 33
Garside, R.E, 33, 145 Kalk, e.E., 6, 18, 19,20
Gibbons, D.e., 121 Kalter, N., 60, 65
Gill, D.G., 19, 155 Kappel, B.E., 89
Ginter, M.A., 61, 79 Kearsley, R.B., 33
Glass, D.C., 102, 115 Keir, G.H., 145
Glick, P.C., 59 Kellaghan, T., 56
Glueck, E., 122 Kellam, S.G., 38, 39,60,155, 159
Glueck, S., 122 Kelly, J.B., 60, 61, 62, 65, 66, 69, 79
Goldstein, H., 38, 104, 106 Kennedy, W., 7, 8, 33,61,144
AUTHOR INDEX 183
Kennett, K.F., 104, 105 Moore, T., 93, 94

Kessner, D.M., 6,18,19,20 Moreland, R.L., 60
Kilmer, S., 92 Morolla, F.A., 102, 103, 106, 112, 113, 146
Kitchen, W.H., 145 Morrison, 1.R., 60
Klein, M.W., 121, 122, 139 Morrow, B.H., 155
K1erman, L.Y., 15 Mll{a, E., 11
Kliger, D., 89 Murray, H., 93, 94
Knobloch, H., 37
Kolvin, L., 33, 145 Naylor, F.D., 145
Koplik, L.H., 19, 155 Neligan, G.A., 33,145
Kopp, C.B., 11,32,33,38,143,144,145 Neubauer, P., 65
Krakow, J.B., 143 Nichols, P.L., 105
Kulka, R.A., 63 Nichols, R., 7, 8, 33, 61,144
Kunz, P.R., 104, 105 Nie, N.H., 53
Niswander, K.R., 6,18,19,21,22,27,32,
Lahey, B.B., 105, 115 121,144
Lambert, P., 18 Norland, S., 121, 144
Lambert, R.D., 89 Neulinger, 1.,102,115
Lazar, I., 93, 94 Nye, F.l., 122, 123, 125
Leventhal, T., 105, 115
Levitin, T.E., 63, 64, 79 Offord, D.R., 123, 138
Linden, E., 126 Oleson, V.J., 122
Lindholm, B.W., 60 Oppel, W.e., 145, 146, 155
Lobi, M., 155 Osofsky, H., 155
Loeber, R., 139 Osofsky, 1., 155
Lubchenco,L.O., 146
Lubeck, S.G., 121 Page,E.B., 104, 105
Lyerly, R.R., 124, 126 Parmelee, A.H., 11,32, 33, 38, 144, 145
Pasamanick, B., 37
Maccoby, E.E., 28 Pederson, F., 33
Madaus, G., 56 Pedulla, J., 56
Marcy, T.G., 33, 38,144 Peterson, E.T., 104, 105
Markle, G.F., 123 Pharoah, P., 6, 20
Markus, G.B., 102, 103, 105, 113 Phipps-Yonas, S., 155
Markus, H., 103, 105, 113 Pietrowski, R., 32
Marston, N.e., 55 Poresky, R., 22
Martin, G., 60 Prechtl, H., 32
McCord, J., 1'12
McCord, w., 122 Rahav, G., 135
McDermott, J.F. Jr., 60, 62, 65 Ramier, R., 65
McDougall, A.B., 145 Ramsey, M., 32
McHenry, P.C., 155 Record, R.G., 38,102
McKeown, T., 38,102 Regan, R.A., 60
McLaughlin, I.E., 61 Rembar, 1., 65
Mednick, B.R., 7, 11, 15,20,33,155 Ricciuti, M., 92
Mednick, S.A., 11,56,124 Rickards, A., 145
Mellits, E., 155 Rider, R.V., 145, 146
Menken, 1.,155 Robertson, E.G., 19,29
Meyer, W., 94 Robins, L.N., 105, 124, 125, 132
Michaelis, R., 11 Roebuck, 1.B., 121
Milazzo, P.A., 56 Rohrlich, 1.A., 65
Monroe, L.J., 122 Rosche, M., 93, 94
Montare, A., 61 Rosenblatt, e., 32
Moore, K., 155, 156 Rosenblith, J., 32
184 AUTHOR INDEX
Rosenthal, D.M., 61,87 Tanner, 1.M., 106

Ross, E.M., 4, 20, 27, 28 Taub, H.B., 32
Ross, 1.M .. 129 Taub, K.M., 33, 145
Royce, 1.,93,94 Teasdale, T., II, 15,20
Royston, A.B., 155 Terhune, K.W, \05, 113
Rubin, R.A., 32 Thompson, A.J.M., 145
Rubinstein, S.L., 33 Thornton, WE., 121, 144
Rundle, A.T., 125 Ting, G., 32
Rutter, M., 67,123,124 Touiliatos, J., 60
Ryan, M.M., 145 Towbin, A., 37
Trickett, P., 94
Sameroff, A.J., 29, 33,143,145,147,154 Tuckman, 1., 60
Santrock, 1.W., 61 Turner, R.J., 38, 39, 60
Schlesinger, E.R., 6, 15, IS, 19.20
Schooler, c., \02
Schrader, W.R., \OS, 115 Volavka, 1., 124
Schulsinger, F.. 56
Schul singer, R., I I Wadsworth,M., \OS, III, 121,122, 123, 125,
Schuman, H.H., 32 129,137,141
Schutz, R.E., 56 Wainer, H., 53
Schwartzberg, A.Z., 79 Waite, L., 155, 156
Scott, D.M., 33, 145 Wallerstein, 1.S., 60, 61, 62, 65, 66, 69, 79
Scott, K.G., 29 Wallston, B., S7
Scott, P., 89 Walters, L.J., 155
Sheehan, c., 15 Weiner, G., 145, 146
Shinn, M., 60, 61,64,65,79 Weingarten, H., 63
Short, J. F., Jr., 122 Weis, J.G., 118
Shover, N., 121, 144 Welcher, D., 155
Siegel, L.S., 144, 145 Wender, P.H., 147,154
Sigman, M., 11,32,33, 144 Werner, E.E., 8,18,23,32,33,56,144, 145,
Simpson, H.R., 129 147, ISO, 154
Singer, 1., 6,18, 19,20 West, D.J.,il IS, 122, 125, 129, 132
Sjolund, A., 92 Westman, J., 60, 65
Skipper, J.K. Jr., 124, 126 Westphal, M., 32
Skirbaek, S., 118 White, K.R., 57
Siovik, L.S., 59 White, S.W, 64
Smith,R.S., 56, 144,147,150,154 Wilkinson, K., 123
Sorosky, A.D., 60 Winer, B., 53
Spivak, G., 55 Wittes, J.T., \02, 113, 146
Spotts, J., 55 Wolfgang, M., 118
Sroufe, L.A., 126 Woods, 89
St. Claire, K., 10,32
Stein, Z.A., 102, 103, 106, 112, 113, 146
Steinberg, L., 92 Yarrow, L., 33
Steinbrenner, K., 53 Yarrow, M.R., 89
Stolberg, A., 61
Stott, D.H., 55
Sudia, C.E., 60, 63, 79 Zachau-Christiansen, B., 4, 20, 27, 28, 33
Sugar, M., 19,60 Zackler, 1., 155
Susser, M.W, 103, \06, 112, 113 Zajonc, R.B., 102, \03, 104, \OS, III, 113,
Sutton-Smith, B., 7, 15, 155 114,115
Svalastoga, K., 107, 129 Zelazo, P.R., 33
Svanum, S., 61, 102, 104, \05 Zigler, E., 94
Subject Index
Birth order, 9, 20, 24, 34--35, 101 Employment of mother, 9, 34, 50, 81, 156
and academic outcomes, 102-103, 106, 111- and adolescent outcomes, 86--88
112,115 definitions and patterns, 82-83
and criminal behavior, 108-109 social correlates of, 84--86
and physical stature, 106, 111-112, 114 and work instability, 89-90
and psychosocial outcomes, 105-107, 111-
112,115
Family constellations, 40, 127, 156
Family interactions and dissension, 50, 86, 95-
Child care
96, 126-127
day, 9, 34--35, 81,90
Family size, 5, 86, 101, 127, 156
long-term correlates of, 92-99
and academic outcomes, 104--106, 110---113
types of, 91
and criminal behavior, 125
Child planned, 9, 24, 34--35
etiology of correlates, 113-114
Criminal behavior of adolescents and young
and physical stature, 106, 110,112
adults, 108-109, 117-141
and psychosocial outcomes, 105-107, 110,
and birth order, 108-109
112, 125
definitions of, 117, 127
and family instability, 123, 136-139
and family size, 125 Gestational age, 24, 26, 34--35
and maternal characteristics, 51, 124--125,
127,132-133,136 Implications
and parental crime, 124--125, 132-136 and early medical treatment, 14--15,28-29
and socioeconomic status, 122, 129-132 for infant health care, 163, 164
typology, 118-121, 139-141 for adolescent development, 164--166
for further research, 160---162, 164--166
Development of maternal status scales, 53-54 Infant medical characteristics, definitions, and
Divorce correlates
correlates of, 64--65 birth weight, 9, 24, 26--27, 34--35, 145-146
and criminality, 123, 136-139 delivery complications, 9, 10, 12,24,34
definition of, 63 neonatal neurological status, 9, 10, 12,23-
number of family constellations, 51,86, 127 24,27-28,34--35,95-96,161
and family instability, 59-60, 77-79, 95-96, neonatal physical status, 9, 10, 12,23-24,
123, 136-139 27-28,34--35,95-96, 161
impact on child, 61-63, 69-76, 150---154 one-year physical health, 9, 10, 13,31-38,
timing of, 68-69 161
185
186 SUBJECT INDEX
one-year motor development, 9,10,13,31- Physical status (child's), 106, 108-109

37,51,161
perinatal mortality, 21-23
Infant physical risk, 10-13, 143-145
and long-term consequences, 145-146, 150- Sample characteristics
155 description, 3, 5-6, 47-48, 49, 52, 66-67,
and low birthweight, 27, 145-146 148-149
measurement of, 147-149 comparability with other samples, 6--8
family socio-economic status, 6, 7, 9
Marital status of mother, 6, 9,17,22,24,26, medical treatment, 6, 14, 163, 164
34 representativeness, 5-6, 48-49
Maternal characteristics, definitions, and School health record, 52
influences Sex differences, 24, 26, 34-35,69-71,74,95-
age, 8-9, 17-18,23-24,34-35,38,40,51, 96, 107-108
86,127,155 Social risk, 33, 154-157
contentment, 51, 70-71, 73, 76, 86, 95-96, Social worker interview of mothers, 50
127,156 Socioeconomic status of family, 6--7, 9, 17, 21,
criminality, 51, 124-125, 127, 132, 133, 136 24,26--27,34-35,37,51,69,71-72,74,
delivery complications, 9-10, 12,24,34 86,95-96, 108, 122, 127, 129-132, 156
disorderliness, 51,70-71,73,76,86,95-96, Spacing of siblings, 9, 20, 24, 34
127
education, 51, 70-71, 73, 75, 86,127,156
employment, 9,34,50,81,156
health, 9, 24, 34, 35,51,127 Teacher judgments of adolescent behavior
marital status, 6--7, 9, 17,22,24,26,34 development of scales for, 53-55
pregnancy complications, 9-10, 12, 17,24, justification for using, 55-56
26, 34, 35 reliability of scales, 55
Teenage pregnancy, 18-20,38-41
National police register, 52 long term correlates of, 158-160
National population register, 52 social risk of, 154-157

Influences On Human Development

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INFLUENCES ON HUMAN

Other Titles in the Series:

Schulsinger, F, Mednick, SA, Knop J.;

Van Dusen, K.T., Mednick, SA; Prospective

Goodwin, D., Van Dusen, K.T., Mednick, SA;

University of Southern California

Research Team Collaborators

Distributors Outside North America:

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

(Longitudi~al research in the behavioral, social, and medical sciences)

Copyright © 1984 by Kluwer • Nijhoff Publishing. No part of this book

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984

List of Tables vii

Pregnancy and the First Year

1-1 Age of Mother at Birth of Index Child in Two Samples 8

2-1 Regression Analysis Results: Neonatal Outcomes 24

6-5 Number of Children in Each Type of Day Care by Age 91

1-1 Socioeconomic Status: A Comparison of the American 7

5-3 Percentage of High Withdrawal by SES and Family Intactness 72

8-3 Percentage with One-Plus Young Adult Uncontrolled Behavior 132

Dr. Bengt Zachau-Christiansen, director of the Danish Perinatal Project, Rigshos-

Drs. Sarnoff A. Mednick and Fini Schulsinger, directors of Psykologisk Institut,

Los Angeles, California R.L.B.

Chapter 1. Description of the Cohort, Variables, and General Procedures.

Contents of chapters 2 and 3 are adaptations and expansions of a report

Suitability of the Danish Cohort for Our Use

General Procedures Used

Representativeness of the Danish Sample

Comparability with the Danish Population

The Danish perinatal sample is not a representative sample of pregnant Danish

Social Background. Women in the Danish perinatal sample experienced a higher

Medical Treatment. The quality of treatment received by pregnant women in the

Comparability with Other Birth Cohorts

Figure 1-1. Socioeconomic Status: A Comparison of the American Collaborative

Table 1-1. Age of Mother at Birth of Index Child in Two Samples

Source: Broman. Nichols. and Kennedy [1975. p. 26].

I . Each identified their samples early in the pregnancy.

The Variables and Their Context

Antecedent Variables Mediating Variables Outcome Variables

Social Data on Family Sociological Factors Physiological Status

Child Planned Medical Factors

scores describing physical, neurological, and motor development status of the 1-

Data Items and Their Sources

Reduction of Medical Data Items into Composite Scores

Neonatal neurological status

Pregnancy complications Bacterial infection; anemia

Delivery complications Ruptured perineum; medical stimulation of

Neonatal neurological status Shivering, restlessness, frog position (not

Table 1-3, Continued

4 Peripheral convulsions (occurring over more

One-year physical status lllness during first year, such as infection in

General Analytic Strategy

A Preliminary Consideration: The Influence of Standard Medical

Study Sample Design

0 1 in all studies is comprised of a number of observations related to medical and

These circumstances constitute an advantage. Under these circumstances we

Previous Research on Factors Influencing Pregnancy

SES status and out-of-wedlock pregnancy to be positively correlated with perinatal

Parity and Spacing

Factors Influencing Neonatal Outcomes in the Danish

As described in chapter 1 and elaborated by Mednick et al. [1983], the subjects in

Influence of Maternal and Social Variables on Fetal and

SES and Perinatal Mortality