Predicting offspring vulnerability to psychopathology from parents' test data

Interpretation of parents' psychological test data was used to predict vulnerability to psychopathology of male offspring ages 4, 7, and 10. Families were chosen for the study according to the previous psychiatric diagnosis of at least one parent. The prediction of procedure was styled after methods used in previous studies with adolescent and young adult offspring. Vulnerability was measured by a global rating score obtained from the Rochester Adaptive Behavior Inventory, a scale based on behavioral observations of the offspring's behavior. Evaluation of 11 families at each age level resulted in significantly accurate predictions at the 10-year-old level, but less than significantly accurate predictions at the 7- and 4-year-old levels. These findings have important implications for the family development of schizophrenia and related disorders.