Psychological development of school-age children born preterm in comparison with children born full-term / Desenvolvimento psicológico na fase escolar de crianças nascidas pré-termo em comparação com crianças nascidas a termo

The present study aims to assess psychological development in terms of behavioral, intellectual and emotional indicators of preterm and very low birthweight children at school age in comparison with full-term children. The sample in this study consisted of forty children aged from 8 to 10 years. They were divided into 2 groups: Preterm (PT) consisting of 20 children born 2.500g birthweight. Raven's Special Scale, Draw-a-Person and Child Behavior Scale were used in the psychological assessment. PT group presented more behavioral problems and lower intellectual level when compared to the FT group. Enuresis, fear, tics, impatience and lack of focus on activities were significantly more frequent in the PT group than in the FT group. In the PT group the lower the intellectual level of the children the more behavior problems they presented