Abstract
Using data from a longitudinal study of prenatal cocaine exposure, we demonstrate that women who use cocaine during pregnancy differ in demographic, substance use, and environmental characteristics from women who do not use cocaine. Each of these characteristics affects the child's development independent of cocaine exposure, and it is not appropriate to draw conclusions regarding the effects of cocaine use per se without taking into consideration the ways in which women who use cocaine differ from women who do not use. We present statistical examples where the effect of prenatal cocaine use was not significant after control for extraneous variables and examples where the effects remained significant after control. Thus, it is necessary to identify which variables are extraneous variables and to explore the effects of these variables on the findings. Failure to control for these variables can lead to inaccurate conclusions regarding the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure.
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