Patterns of childhood social development in adult schizophrenics

Abstract

Previous analysis of teachers' comments in school records of schizophrenics showed progressive deviance in their childhood social behavior and sharp differences between the sexes. This report presents a replication of the longitudinal study and a reanalysis of the combined samples. The principal findings from the earlier study were confirmed: in the later school years, preschizophrenic girls were primarily introverted and preschizophrenic boys mainly disagreeable. In the new study, the preschizophrenic girls were also emotionally unstable, introverted, and passive from kindergarten through grade 6, suggesting in earlier history of social disengagement than was previously apparent, and the preschizophrenic boys were emotionally unstable in grades 7 through 12, confirming a nonsignificant trend in the original study. The boys were not behaviorally distinguishable from other boys in elementary grades, so the notion of progressive deviance appears more applicable in their case.