Early maternal influences upon later cognitive development among Japanese children

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Abstract
This is a follow-up study on the Japanese sample of Japan-US cross-national project concerning the maternal influence upon the cognitive development in pre-school years. In order to test the longitudinal generalizability of the findings from our pre-school study, IQ and school achievement scores were assessed at age 11: 0 for 44 out of 58 Japanese sample, and were examined in relation to pre-school cognitive measures and to early maternal factors. As a general picture, the level of cognitive performance was moderately stable throughout pre-school and school years. Non-verbal cognitive measures at pre-school age showed conspicuously high correlation with the present IQs, and important role of non-verbal skills at early age was suggested as the basis of later cognitive development. The correlational patterns of early maternal factors with the present cognitive measures (at 11: 0) were almost similar to those found in the pre-school study. These results suggest that environmental and maternal factors determine child's development not only in early age but also constitute long term and cumulative effect upon later cognitive development.