| This study was designed to investigate differences in the constructs of behavior and neuropsychological functioning in two groups of children. The premise of the research was that children born to migrant farm working parents experienced exposure to pesticides which may compromise their behavioral and neuropsychological functioning. A structured parent interview, comprised of the Maternal Perinatal Scale and an interview designed by the researcher, and two standardized test instruments, the NEPSY: A Neuropsychological Assessment of Children and the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Parent Rating Scale (BASC-PRS) were used to gather data from these two groups of children. A total of 55 children and parents were recruited through Plaza de Milagro, a housing development for migrant farm workers, and Weld County District Six Schools in Greeley, Colorado during the spring and summer of 2000. This total included 28 migrant children, their parents and 27 non-migrant children and their parents. Following data collection, the results were analyzed using Chi Square procedures and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to determine if any of the measures had a statistically significant difference. No statistically significant differences were found on any of the dependent measures. A significant difference was noted on one subscale of the BASC-PRS, (social skills and one item of the MPS which dealt with stress during pregnancy). Careful evaluation of data gathered from the parent interview indicated that the individuals in the two samples were not significantly different from each other on a number of family variables, including moves, parent level of education, language acquisition of parents and child, and the number of children in the family. The groups were also similar in terms of grandparent occupation; grandparents in both groups were employed in agriculture, primarily migrant farmworkers. The groups differed by current parent occupation and by perceived exposure to pesticides. The implications of the findings were discussed. |
