Tan L E, Nettleton N C
Cortex. 1980 Oct;16(3):363-73. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(80)80038-4.
The handedness of 942 subjects (305 tertiary students, 591 of their siblings and 46 of their children) was ascertained by a 14-item questionnaire. The mothers of the subjects supplied information about maternal age at birth, birth weight and the presence or absence of twelve conditions likely to be associated with birth stress for each subject. No increase in left handedness was found among fourth or later born children. A significant decrease occurred in first-borns of both sexes, although these had more stressful births than the other subjects. No relationship between maternal age, birth weight or reported birth stress and left handedness was found. Thus the hypothesis that birth stress is a major cause of left handedness in normal subjects was not supported. Acknowledgements. We are particularly grateful to the students from the Institute for Early Childhood Development and their families, who provided the data for this study. We also wish to thank Dr John L. Bradshaw for his very constructive comments during the preparation of this paper.
通过一份包含14个条目的问卷确定了942名受试者（305名大学生、591名他们的兄弟姐妹以及46名他们的子女）的用手习惯。受试者的母亲提供了每位受试者出生时母亲的年龄、出生体重以及十二种可能与出生压力相关的情况是否存在的信息。在第四个或更晚出生的孩子中未发现左撇子比例增加。两性中的头胎出生者左撇子比例显著下降，尽管他们的出生压力比其他受试者更大。未发现母亲年龄、出生体重或报告的出生压力与左撇子之间存在关联。因此，出生压力是正常受试者左撇子主要原因这一假设未得到支持。致谢。我们特别感谢来自幼儿发展研究所的学生及其家人，他们为这项研究提供了数据。我们还感谢约翰·L·布拉德肖博士在本文撰写过程中提出的非常有建设性的意见。
