Birth factors and laterality: Effects of birth order, parental age, and birth stress on four indices of lateral preference

Stanley Coren, Clare Porac

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

As an alternative to genetic theories of handedness, some theorists have offered an environmental mechanism, associated with birth stress, for the appearance of left-handedness. They suggest that brain damage as a result of birth difficulties can lead to a switch in hand preference from the right side to the left side. Consequently, one should find more left-handers in groups where the probability of the occurrence of birth stress is greater. Three studies are presented which explore the laterality of not only hand but also foot, eye, and ear, in a total of 5161 individuals, in an attempt to assess any relationship to birth stress. Maternal age seems to predict deviations from dextrality, dependent on the sex of the offspring, while paternal age and birth order do not. The use of a direct measure of conditions predisposing toward birth stress suggests that these results depend on prenatal or perinatal environmental trauma rather than chromosomal factors.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)123-138
Number of pages16
JournalBehavior Genetics
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1980

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Genetics
  • Genetics(clinical)

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