Families of Children With Early Childhood Schizophrenia

Abstract

PREVIOUS STUDIES regarding the etiological importance of family background in childhood schizophrenia have produced diverse findings and impressions. Kanner⁴ has stated that autistic children are usually found to have intelligent, sophisticated parents who have attained a high educational level. In his population of autistic patients, 94% of the parents were high school graduates, while 74% of the fathers and 49% of the mothers had completed college. In another publication,³ he remarked on a low incidence of divorce among these families. Bender,¹ on the other hand, has noted that no such trends exist among the parents of schizophrenic children seen at Bellevue, but rather that these children come from a wide variety of backgrounds. It has also been reported that a fairly high ratio of boys to girls is common in a schizophrenic population, and that these children are frequently the firstborn in their sibling group. Bender²