“Gestational age, kindergarten‐level literacy, and effect modification by maternal socio‐economic and demographic factors” examined whether maternal socio‐economic or demographic factors modify the association between gestational age and children's scores on a standardized test of kindergarten‐level literacy. Using the Big Data for Little Kids (BD4LK) collection of Wisconsin birth records that linked to  Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening—Kindergarten tests.

The study found:

“Each additional completed gestational week was associated with a 0.5 percentage point increase in the probability of meeting the PALS‐K literacy benchmark. The benefit of an additional week of gestational age was 0.5 percentage points greater for Medicaid‐covered births relative to non‐Medicaid births. Relative to only completing high school, having college education weakened this association by 0.3‐0.6 percentage points, depending on years in college. Similar but modest relations emerged with standardized scores.”

Read the whole paper here.