Social and other environmental influences on the cognitive and personality development of low birthweight infants.

Research on the cognitive development of low-birthweight infants was reviewed, followed by suggestions for promising future research strategies. On-going studies at the Rose F. Kennedy Center were described to illustrate the proposed model. Central features of the expanded approach are as follows: The study of high-risk populations should include, beyond biologic and broadly conceived social measures and beyond cognitive outcome, measures of development in the psychosocial domain. Further, detailed assessment of the children's daily life and behavior patterns can provide clues for causal linkages to account for the association between social economic status and cognitive development.