Early interactions between drug-involved mothers and infants. Within-group differences.

OBJECTIVE: To explore differences in maternal characteristics, mother-infant interaction, and infant development within a group of women who used cocaine, alcohol, and tobacco during pregnancy and their infants. DESIGN: Prospective survey. SETTING: Countywide, voluntary, home-based clinical intervention program. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two mother-infant pairs identified through a risk-assessment screen who participated in the program for 1 year. VARIABLES: Maternal characteristics, neonatal characteristics, interactional measures (Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale and Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scale), and developmental assessment (Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 1 year). RESULTS: The majority of women were black, single, and unemployed. Fifteen (47%) of the infants were born prematurely; four (13%) were small for gestational age. Mean Bayley Scales of Infant Development scores were as follows: the mental development index was 99.8, and the psychomotor development index was 102.4. Older mothers (r = .41, P = .04), mothers of higher parity (r = .42, P = .02), and mothers who were more actively involved in the program (r = .41, P = .04) had higher scores on the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training Feeding Scale. Mothers who were better educated (r = .49, P = .009) and mothers who were more active in the program (r = .44, P = .02) had higher scores on the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scale. Several of the subscales of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scale were significantly associated with scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. CONCLUSIONS: For this group of substance-exposed infants whose mothers were receiving support services, developmental skills at 1 year were age appropriate. Despite drug abuse and poverty, there was some variability in the ability of mothers to provide a developmentally supportive environment for their infants. Those who were better organized to support infant development had infants who performed better on global developmental assessments.

An examination of the relationship between drinking status after treatment and the self-evaluation of the alcoholic.

A repeated measures design examined the relationship between post-treatment drinking status and the alcoholics' evaluation of themselves when sober and when drinking. The self-evaluation ratings of 78 alcoholics in a residential psychotherapeutic treatment program were measured at intake (time 1), and at follow-up, three to six months after treatment (time 2). Four hypotheses were tested which posited: (1) sober self-ratings would be higher at follow-up than at intake; (2) drinking self-ratings would be lower at follow-up than at intake; (3) sober/drinking differences would be greater at follow-up than at intake; and (4) the nondrinkers would evidence more significant differences (in the above) than the drinkers. The t-test yielded a marginally significant sober rating (t (46) = -1.93, p = 0.03). There was a significant time by sober/drinking interaction (F (1,44) = 5.57, = 0.03), but there was no significant group effect. The first three hypotheses were accepted, the fourth was rejected.