Maternal IQ and child mortality in 222 Serbian Roma (Gypsy) women

A significant negative correlation (r = −0.26) is found between maternal IQ measured by the Raven’s Matrices and child mortality in 222 Serbian Roma (Gypsy) women. Statistical adjustments for schooling, age, religion, number of marriages, age at first reproduction, and birth spacing did not remove the correlation. Indeed, maternal schooling had no association with child mortality after controlling for IQ. We suggest that in addition to cognitively mediated self-management, an explanation for the relationship may lie in a cross-species life-history theory in which IQ scores are linked to brain size and a robust constitution.