ABSTRACT -''That's a huge effect, four times less likely to graduate from high school,'' said Greg J. Duncan of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. ''And it's a little puzzling, since most studies have shown that most effects of low birthweight fade out in the preschool years. But a sibling comparison is a very good way to look at it, since it gets around all kinds of variables that make it hard to compare low-birthweight children with normal-birthweight children from different families.''
In the families studied, 57.5 percent of the normal-birthweight siblings graduated from high school by the time they were 19, compared with 15.2 percent of the low-birthweight siblings.
''It's going to be for some future researchers to investigate whether it's health problems, slowed cognitive development or other mechanisms,'' said Dalton Conley, a sociologist at New York University, who, with Neil G. Bennett of the Baruch School of Public Affairs, wrote the study. ''Our contribution was to follow these kids years longer than other studies. And as a policy matter, I think our findings argue that programs to help low-birthweight kids need to extend well beyond the early years.'' Copyright New York Times Company Jul 5, 2000
Full Text:
Babies born weighing less than five and a half pounds are almost four times more likely not to graduate from high school by age 19 than their normal-birthweight siblings, according to a study in the June issue of the American Sociological Review.
The findings of the study, apparently the first to follow low-birthweight children to age 19, are far more dramatic than the academic problems documented in previous studies tracking children for fewer years. And the extent of the educational gap came as a troubling surprise to some experts in the field.
''That's a huge effect, four times less likely to graduate from high school,'' said Greg J. Duncan of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. ''And it's a little puzzling, since most studies have shown that most effects of low birthweight fade out in the preschool years. But a sibling comparison is a very good way to look at it, since it gets around all kinds of variables that make it hard to compare low-birthweight children with normal-birthweight children from different families.''
In the families studied, 57.5 percent of the normal-birthweight siblings graduated from high school by the time they were 19, compared with 15.2 percent of the low-birthweight siblings.
Timely high school graduation is an important indicator, sociologists said, because those who do not graduate on time are more likely to receive an equivalency diploma and less likely to go on to a four-year college than those who complete high school on time. The study did not examine the cause of the lag.
''It's going to be for some future researchers to investigate whether it's health problems, slowed cognitive development or other mechanisms,'' said Dalton Conley, a sociologist at New York University, who, with Neil G. Bennett of the Baruch School of Public Affairs, wrote the study. ''Our contribution was to follow these kids years longer than other studies. And as a policy matter, I think our findings argue that programs to help low-birthweight kids need to extend well beyond the early years.''
Mr. Conley's study is based on data from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which has followed thousands of families since 1968.
Previous research has found that low-birthweight children have an increased risk of academic difficulties in early childhood, but the gap was not as dramatic as the gaps found in the new study.
In one study following 2,000 low-birthweight children to age 8, researchers found that among those weighing less than 2.2 pounds, more than a third had already failed a grade, and 12 percent were in special education. And among those from 2.2 pounds to 5.5 pounds, more than a quarter had failed a grade, and 6 percent were in special education.
An author of that study, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, a child development and education professor at Columbia University, said that while the new results were startling there might be reasons school problems became more pronounced as low-birthweight children grew.
''When you hit adolescence, there are more challenges to deal with, and that may exacerbate the effects we saw at age 8,'' Professor Brooks-Gunn said. ''These are kids with more illnesses, more going against them. What this very large difference at high school graduation may reflect is that when these kids get to middle school, and face greater demands, they may disengage from school.''
That study followed babies born in the 1970's, and Mr. Conley's looked at babies born in the 1960's and 1970's.
Since then, there have been significant medical advances in caring for premature, low-birthweight babies, who make up almost 8 percent of infants born in the United States.
''There have been big medical advances, which may mean that some of these babies do much better,'' Mr. Conley said. ''But at the same time, many more babies weighing less than three pounds are surviving, babies who probably would have died in the period of our data. And those are the ones with the worst problems.''