IQ wasless than 85 at three years of age. Race was the greatest factor in predicting outcome, that wasfollowed by maternal education, and then medical complications. The infants of poorly educatedAfrican American mothers (90%) who had medical complications were severely compromised,while only nine percent of white infants with well-educated parents fell into this category,regardless of birth complications. There are other biological variables that seem to beindependent of psycho-social factors. In one study, it was shown that if the mother smokedduring her pregnancy, there appeared to be a high risk for conduct disorder and male children. This study suggested that are maybe a direct effect on the still developing fetus.“The influences of genetics are seen as an impact on social inequalities. The MacArthurLongitudinal Twin Study provided researchers with important information related to geneticfactors in behavioral inhibition.” Behavioral inhibition is unstable between ages of 14 to 24months, and that this change is due to genetics rather then environmental factors. It suggests thatgenes may turn off and on at different ages, and that genes are “context dependent.” In exampleof the Twin Study, comparisons between the identical and fraternal twins show that there was acontinual genetic influence showing responses on cognitive, emotional, and behavior arousal inresponse to distress of another, at the ages of 24 and 36 months. Social influences that wereshared by the twins with their interactions with parents and others were a major influence withthe mothers, but not the testers. So genetic influences showed up more readily. Geneticinfluences were ever present are not environmentally controlled. Maybe the social background ofa child with a low SES (socioeconomic status) could inhibit or caused the trigger effect (turn onor off) of genetic propensities.Our next topic is the family and social factors. Two of...
