ABSTRACT
The massive Collaborative Perinatal Project involving 44,000 pregnant women and their off-spring resulted in several reports concerning factors affecting developmental outcome of the children. Pregnancy protocols, labor and delivery data, neonatal measures, and subsequent behavioral and physiological examinations of the children from birth to four years were analyzed for a population of over 26,000 children to determine which variables predicted best to I.Q. test performance at four years. The analysis of the behavioral components that constitute what happens in different socio-economic status groups is one of the more important questions challenging the current generation of developmental investigators. This chapter provides major themes that bring us to several conclusions concerning the nature of the variables and the complexities of the interactions toward which we must direct major research efforts. It is clear cpredictors of developmental outcome and there are no simple hazard markers that insure any particular adverse outcome.
