Neuropsychology and bullying in preterm and/or low weight school children

Abstract

Introduction: in Mexico City, between 8.37 and 15% of around 2,242,366 annual births are preterm and/or low weight babies, which can be a predisposing bullying condition. Objective: to indicate whether there is a relationship between low weight, very low weight and preterm children with neurocognitive deficits that may impact school learning and this situation may predispose children to suffer bullying. Material and method: we performed WISC IV, ENI, BANFE, Complex King Figure and Simple Bullying Questionary to 31 low birth weight, very low birth weight and/or preterm school children age 8-13. Results: low birth weight, very low birth weight and/or preterm school children present several neurocognitive deficits that impact in school learning. The processing speed is deficient in around 45% of the studied population. The reading process was affected in 61.29% of the children, in mathematics there was a 51.61%% of affected children, the memory process was altered in 70.80%. There was a 70.97% of children with deficit in space skills, whereas the constructive praxias was altered in 90% of the children, and planning in 67%, those are predisposing bullying conditions. From a 31 school children population, 100% were bullied. They suffered at least 7 of 10 different types of aggression (robbery 92.8%, mockery 89.3%, isolation 82.1% and knocking 71.4%). Conclusions: children with low weight, very low weight and preterm are more likely to present neurocognitive impairment, that may originate 7.6 kind of aggression, whereas common school children only receive around 2.2.