An examination of social-skills intervention called Children’s Friendship Training found that it led to a decrease in hostile attributions or perceptions of children with PAE.

"Children with PAE have a hard time making and keeping friends," explained the study’s corresponding author Vivien Keil, a staff research associate in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA . "More specifically, they tend to have difficulty understanding social cues and common social norms."

"These social problems are due, in part, to the neurological and cognitive deficits known to be associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol," said Joseph M. Price, a research scientist in the Children and Adolescent Services Research Center at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.

Price also noted that such social problems could eventually lead to school problems, emotional and behavior problems, early school dropout, delinquency and drug and alcohol use. As a result, children with PAE are likely to benefit from intervention efforts designed to improve their social skills and their relationships with peers and adults.

In the course of this study, researchers found that when children were asked about other children’s intentions during the intervention period, they made fewer hostile attributions after the intervention. In other words, children’s hostile interpretations of peers’ social intentions can be modified by intervention efforts.
 

Lead author Colleen O’Leary said the analysis was drawn from a random sample of more than 2,000 mothers who completed a questionnaire three months after the baby’s delivery, and were then followed up when the child was 2, 5, and 8 years of age.

“Mothers who reported what we would classify as heavy drinking in the first trimester of pregnancy were nearly three times as likely to report that their child suffered with anxiety and/or depression or somatic complaints,” O’Leary said.

“Those who drank moderately during that first trimester were twice as likely to report those types of behavioral issues for their child. Exposure to moderate or heavy levels of alcohol in late pregnancy increased the risk of aggressive types of behaviors in the child. This research suggests that both the timing and the intensity of alcohol exposure in the womb affect the type of behavior problems expressed,” said O’Leary.

In this study, low levels of alcohol did not increase the risk of harm to the baby. However, the evidence clearly shows that the risk to the baby increases with increasing amounts consumed.

“It should also be noted that in this study moderate exposure is classified as drinking 3-4 standard drinks per occasion—that’s about two normal glasses of wine—and no more than a bottle of wine drunk over a week,” O’Leary said.

Heavy drinking included women who were drinking the equivalent of more than a bottle of wine per week. O’Leary said it is important that women who had consumed alcohol while pregnant are not panicked by the findings.

“Not every smoker gets lung cancer despite them being at higher risk—and in this case, not every child will be affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol. However, it is important that women have this information about increased risk so that they can make informed decisions to give their child the best start to life,” she said.

The National Health and Medical Research Council recommend that the safest choice for women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy is to abstain from alcohol.

O’Leary said health professionals can assist by talking to women of child-bearing age about their alcohol consumption and encouraging pregnant women and women planning a pregnancy to abstain from alcohol.

Early reports out of such research indicate that such exposure to alcohol is an independent contributor to the likelihood of alcohol consumption by the age of 14. In addition, this consumption can also significantly impact the development of alcohol disorders by the age of 21.

Alati, Al Mamun, Williams, O’Callaghan, Najman, and Bor interviewed 7,223 mothers. Each of these women had their first antenatal visit at Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Brisbane, Australia between 1981 and 1984. Over the course of 21 years, five follow-up visits were completed with 2,555 mother and child pairs or 35.4 percent of the original sample.

At each interview, mothers were asked to report on the quantity of alcohol they had consumed at different stages of pregnancy. They were also asked about the amount they were consuming at the time of the interview. According to results, 25 percent of the offspring met the DSM-IV criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol disorders by age 21.

Another 13 percent reported the disorder before the age of 18 and 12 percent reported the onset of an alcohol disorder between the ages of 18 and 21. Further analysis of the data collected indicate that mothers who consumed more than two glasses of alcohol during early pregnancy, at an average of 18 weeks gestation, were 2.47 times more likely to have a child with early onset alcohol disorder.

This same mother was 2.04 times more likely to have a child with late onset alcohol disorder compared to mothers who consumed two or fewer glasses of alcohol during pregnancy. The overall association was stronger for early onset alcohol disorders than for late onset.

A number of limitations were identified with this study, not the least of which was the fact that researchers asked participants the quantity of alcohol they consumed without specifying a measurement for the standard single drink. Researchers based their assumption on a 10gram drink, but respondents could have had varying quantities.

Even with glaring limitations, this study still presents valuable information in regards to the possibility that alcohol exposure for a fetus could be predictive of future alcohol disorders. Additional research should be done into this area. The stigma now associated with drinking while pregnant could limit further research, but its value would be far-reaching.