Interaction between maternal cigarette smoking and Apgar scores in predicting offending behavior.

Research has shown that various perinatal conditions increase the likelihood of offending behavior; however, results have been mixed, but interactions among perinatal risk factors in predicting offending behavior have been neglected. The purpose was to examine the interaction of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and 1-min. Apgar scores at birth in predicting individuals' later offending behavior. The longitudinal data set was taken from the Philadelphia portion of the Collaborative Perinatal Project and consisted of 832 inner-city, African-American youths. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the combined effect of maternal cigarette smoking and low Apgar scores had a significant influence in predicting offending behavior, whereas the independent effects of the component variables did not.