The clinical interview

Subjects were given in-depth interviews aimed at assessing their level of functioning within their families, with peers, at school, and in leisure activities. Subjects were interviewed when the mean age of the study population was 11 and again at mean age 16. At the time of the first interview, index subjects were impaired relative to controls in interpersonal relations, work and play activities, self-esteem, and mood. There were no apparent differences due to rearing environment or sex, and no interactions with genetic background. At the time of the second interview, index-control differences were even more widespread, with index children showing impairment in virtually all examined areas of psychosocial function. Again, there were no group differences or interactions involving environment or sex. While index and control subjects remained highly discriminable from preadolescent to adolescent periods, there was less evidence of symptom stability in individual subjects over the 5-year period.