It seems the burgeoning dilemma of crack baby births has not gone unnoticed by the scientific and medical community. For the past 23 years one of the largest federal studies has been ongoing in Philadelphia and just recently have some results been shared with the public.
The longitudinal study followed 110 individuals for the course of 23 years, measuring their IQ, social skills and even brain development via new imagine technology. Participants were selected from a hospital in put into two groups, crack babies and control. Many measures were conducted to ensure that the most unbiased results would be yielded. However as time went on the two test groups remained at levels of similar development; Both groups were lagging in terms of their mental and social development. The average IQ for both groups was around 80 which is 10 points lower than national averages. It was around this time that researchers began to suspect a different causal source for the discrepancies in the children's development. The few children that were raised in proper households; with nurturing parents, proper nutritional diets and language stimulating environments, where the ones that ended up scoring higher in most areas of measure. It wasn't whether children were crack babies or not it was a matter of how good the parents they had were. Over 80% of all the children in the study had been witness to arrests and over 30% has seen someone get shot. These children were only seven years old at the time. With all the new findings in the area of plasticity it is no surprise to learn that negative experiences such as these can a have life long impact especially when they occur during critical stages of development.
If there is anything that this study can show, it is that poverty can be more destructive to a human life than one of the most destructive drugs know to man. People for years have been preaching a war on drugs, throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions trying to eradicate drug problems that are only growing. All the while millions of people die everyday because they cant afford a loaf of bread. When results such as this come out, it is hard not to feel that something has gone terrible amiss in our society.
Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:16 am