Predicting IQ from mother-infant interactions.

Longitudinal observations of maternal and infant characteristics were used to investigate the consequences of early day-care intervention for infants at high risk for intellectual retardation due to sociocultural factors. High-risk infants and their mothers were compared on social and intellectual characteristics with a control group not enrolled in an intervention program and with a random sample of mother-child dyads from the general population. Results from group comparisons indicated that mothers of high-risk infants in a day-care intervention group interacted with their infants in ways quite similar to mother of high-risk infants who were not enrolled in the intervention program. Both high-risk groups differed from the general population of mothers on interaction and attitudinal measures. Changes across time on the measures taken were roughly parallel from all three groups. Multiple regression analyses using maternal variables and mother-infant interactional variables to predict 36-month Stanford-Binet scores for the high-risk samples indicated that children's intelligence was predictable from previous maternal behaviors and attitudes, particularly for the control group, and that early day-care intervention apparently had altered the predictiveness of some maternal factors.