Social, emotional, and intellectual behavior at school among children at high risk for schizophrenia.

Four classroom teachers rated the school behavior of 44 12–17 yr olds of schizophrenic parents and 70 Ss of normal parents as part of an ongoing high-risk study. The ratings were made by teachers using the Pupil Rating Form and the Hahnemann High School Behavior Rating Scale. Ss of schizophrenic parents showed greater interpersonal disharmony, less scholastic motivation, more emotional instability, and lower intelligence than the control Ss, but the difference in introversion was not significant. Two of the 4 Ss with 2 schizophrenic parents had extremely low ratings for scholastic motivation, harmony, emotional stability, and intelligence and a 3rd was rated extremely low on emotional stability, but none of them was extremely introverted. On the basis of the results and a preliminary examination of intermediate outcomes (early hospitalization or psychological treatment after the initial school assessments), it is concluded that disharmony, emotional instability, and low intelligence are the early markers for vulnerability to schizophrenia worthy of most attention. The surprising absence of introverted behavior among Ss of schizophrenic parents indicates that introversion—when it is observed—may best be construed not as a static typology of preschizophrenic character but as a dynamic phase in a process of coping and retreat that precedes schizophrenic breakdown, sometimes by many years. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)