Effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine on memory for sex-typed event sequences by preschool children

Cocaine use during pregnancy has been associated with neurobehavioral and cognitive difficulties in infants and toddlers. The present study used an elicited imitation procedure to investigate memory for sex-typed event sequences in preschool children. Measures of immediate and delayed recall was assessed in three groups of children: drug-exposed, at-risk, and not-at-risk. Results indicated that (1) drug-exposed males showed no evidence of demasculinization and/or feminization, (2) drug-exposed children, in general, did not recall a fewer number of different target acts or fewer actions in the correct order than the at-risk or not-at-risk children, and (3) drug-exposed and at-risk children exhibited a greater number of repetition errors and novel errors than not-at-risk children. Findings suggest that certain effects of prenatal drug exposure are still evident in children of preschool age.