Perception of maternal child-rearing attitudes by schizophrenic males, their normal male siblings, and normal males whose siblings are normal.

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that a group of normal male siblings of schizophrenics (N-Sc) will agree with a group of male schizophrenic siblings (Sc-N) in their perception of their mothers' child-rearing attitudes and will perceive these attitudes as being more deviant (undesirable) than a group of normal males whose siblings are all normal (N-N). Perception was measured on a child-study questionnaire which Ss were instructed to answer as they thought their mothers would have when Ss were growing up. The results were that the normal siblings of schizophrenics perceive their mothers' attitudes as being more martyred and subtly dominating than do normal siblings of normals (p = .05). There were no other significant differences, although the trend was toward perception of maternal attitudes as least deviant by the N-N group, most deviant by the N-Sc group, and in-between by the Sc-N group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)