| Abstract: | The results of well-controlled studies indicate no significant differences among the mothers of schizophrenics and those of controls in the amount of reported dominance. However, several equally well-controlled studies demonstrate that the parents of schizophrenics behave in a more conflictual manner toward each other than is true of the parents of controls. The subjects for this study were 35 sets of Caucasian parents: 11 were parents of hospitalized poor premorbid schizophrenics, 12 were parents of hospitalized good premorbid schizophrenics, and 12 were parents of hospitalized tubercular patients (controls). The parents were asked individually whether they agreed or disagreed with the dominance and conflict items from the Parental Attitude Research Instrument. They were then asked to resolve, individually then jointly, 12 hypothetical child-rearing problems. The parental dialogues were all tape-recorded and later scored for dominance and conflict. The results suggest that parents in general are not reliable judges of dominant behavior, but appear to be better estimators of conflictual behavior. The latter finding is especially marked for the parents of controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
