Executive Functioning Predicts Social Skills Following Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

Abstract

Adverse sequelae of prenatal alcohol exposure include executive function and social skills impairments, although these two domains have not been empirically linked in alcohol-exposed individuals. This study investigated this relationship using the BRIEF and the SSRS in 98 children aged 6 to 11 years. Executive functions explained a significant percentage of variance in parent and teacher rated social skills. No differences were found among children with diagnoses of FAS, partial FAS, or alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder. It may be helpful to consider executive functioning in designing social skills interventions for alcohol-exposed children whether or not they have full FAS.

The authors acknowledge Jolie Randall and Clare Gorospe for their valuable assistance. This research was supported by NIAAA NRSA F32 training grant AA013775 to AMS and CDC grant U84-CCU920158 to MOC.

Notes

¹For a minority of children recently adopted from Russia (n = 3/13), Verbal IQ's lower than 70 were accepted if a 95% confidence interval around this score included 70 and if estimates of their Nonverbal IQs were greater than 70. The mean Verbal IQ presented for this sample includes these three children.