Some characteristics of schizophrenics and their parents

This study was designed to test four hypotheses: (a) parents of schizophrenics constitute a discrete group amongst the parents of psychiatric patients with regard to aspects of their construing; (b) schizophrenics can be differentiated from other psychiatric patients by aspects of their construing; (c) the construing of parents of psychiatric patients is related to that of their disturbed children; and (d) parents of schizophrenics differ from parents of other psychiatric patients in their personality and attitudes. An experimental group of parents of acute schizophrenics and a control group of parents of acute non-schizophrenic psychiatric patients were given a battery of psychological tests, and their hospitalized children completed a shortened battery. There was some confirmation of each hypothesis. Both experimental groups structured supplied, but not their own personal, constructs more abnormally than the corresponding control groups, and showed more deviant sexual identification, though this latter was a function of social class. The parents' structuring of supplied constructs was related to that of their children. There were also some differences in personality between the groups of parents.