Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2005. / Adviser: Stuart A. Kirk. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-74).

Prenatal cocaine exposure has been associated with behavior problems at school age. However, the correspondence between use of cocaine and alcohol during pregnancy is often high, making appropriate allocation of variance and control for other exposures and their interactions difficult. Additionally, gender-specific effects are not typically reported. The purpose of the current study was to determine the degree to which gender-specific effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on teacher-reported child externalizing behavior problems were evident when evaluated in relation to prenatal alcohol exposure. Subjects were singleton infants of mothers who were prospectively evaluated during pregnancy. At age seven, 499 children (214 exposed prenatally to cocaine) were evaluated in our laboratory and teacher reports were solicited. Analyses stratified by gender and prenatal alcohol exposure status, and controlled for significant pre- and postnatal confounders, revealed that among boys with prenatal alcohol exposure, those with persistent cocaine exposure throughout pregnancy had significantly higher levels of Delinquent Behavior compared to boys with no cocaine exposure. Boys with any prenatal cocaine exposure were twice as likely as unexposed boys to have clinically significant Externalizing Behavior scores. However, no association was found between prenatal cocaine exposure and scores on Externalizing Behavior and specific syndromes for boys with no prenatal alcohol exposure. Among girls with no prenatal alcohol exposure, those with persistent cocaine exposure had significantly higher levels of Externalizing Behaviors and Aggressive Behaviors compared to girls with no prenatal cocaine exposure after control for confounding, and were almost five times as likely to have clinically significant Externalizing Behavior scores. However, for girls with prenatal alcohol exposure, no association between prenatal cocaine exposure and scores on Externalizing Behavior and specific syndromes was found after control for confounding. The current findings support gender- and alcohol-moderated effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on school-age teacher-reported child behavior problems. These findings are similar to what we have reported for independent parent-reported behavioral evaluation.

No description available.

This project considers how disability studies and rhetorical studies—specifically the area of medical rhetoric—might usefully inform one another. In particular, this project examines prenatal testing for Down syndrome as a rhetorical situation that initiates and circulates many different discourses about Down syndrome. Chapter One begins by examining a frequently cited statistic in critiques of prenatal testing—the estimated pregnancy termination rate after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. It explores the validity of this statistic and uses this discussion to suggest that the effects of prenatal testing on social understandings of Down syndrome are complex and largely unknown. Chapter Two argues that intellectual disabilities, like Down syndrome, are underrepresented in disability studies literature and that their absence can be partially attributed to models of disability used in the field. Chapter Three argues that rhetorical analysis provides a means of examining how Down syndrome is discursively constructed. Chapter Four describes the events of prenatal testing for Down syndrome and analyzes the events as a rhetorical situation. In addition, it reviews feminist, disability, and cultural critiques of prenatal testing demonstrating the strengths of each strand of scholarship and suggesting where rhetorical analysis might provide new information. Chapters Five and Six provide analysis of two commentaries on the rhetorical situation of prenatal testing—genetic counseling discourse and parent discourse. These chapters find that ideal genetic counseling discourse offers pregnant women some opportunities to resist medicalization but also exhibits tension between what counselors say they do and what their rhetorical practice affords, especially regarding disability. In addition, analysis shows that users of prenatal testing are concerned with several factors of decision-making that are either not emphasized or ignored entirely in genetic counseling discourse. This project concludes that although different discourses about Down syndrome are available, elements of the prenatal testing situation make it easier for participants to draw on some discourses rather than others. Furthermore, it appears that certain events in the prenatal testing situation—such as the offer of amniocentesis—operate rhetorically in tacit ways, obscuring the relationship between the choice to undergo genetic screening and perceived meanings of Down syndrome. / Ph. D.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries