Intellectual and personality characteristics of parents of autistic children.

Studied 5 sets of parents with autistic children, and 2 with schizophrenic offspring. Demographic, intelligence, and personality data on their families were examined. Rimland's retrospective checklist (Form E-1) was useful in distinguishing between autistic and schizophrenic disorders. Demographic and IQ findings were not supportive of conjectures about parents' remarkable intelligence and achievement levels. Parental MMPI and "A-B therapist" measures (the Kemp version of the Whitehorn-Betz A-B scale) seemed contradictory to related psychogenic hypotheses about severe childhood disturbances. Results are contrary both to positions depicting parents of autistic children as exceedingly brilliant people and as "emotional refrigerators." (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)