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Intellectuality in parents of psychotic, subnormal, and normal children

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Abstract

Due to etiological implications, parental intellectuality defined by 29 descriptive rating scales was compared in 96 families. Parents represented 33 autistic and schizophrenic children, 33 matched normals, and 30 subnormals. Data was obtained from objectively rated interviews, WAIS and other scales. All groups were alike in characteristics they sought in spouses and children, premarital interests, reading preferences, and life style. With the child's age, sex, ordinal position, race, religion and SES held constant, only one significant difference was found between parents of normal and autistic children. The latter emphasized academic success less in autistic than matched normals in their children. All parents of deviant children desired improvement in speech and relatedness, realistically deemphasizing intellectual achievement. Fathers' verbal IQs were significantly higher for autistic than subnormal groups. Parents of normals were significantly younger at child's birth, an unexpected finding implying a neurological link between autism and subnormality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University School of Medicine, USA

    John Allen,  Marian K. DeMyer (Director), James A. Norton, William Pontius & Ellen Yang

Authors
  1. John Allen
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  2. Marian K. DeMyer
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  3. James A. Norton
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  4. William Pontius
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  5. Ellen Yang
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Additional information

This study was supported in part by Public Health Service Grant No. MH05154, PHS Grant RR-00162, and also by LaRue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, State of Indiana, Indianapolis, Ind. The assistance of the Indiana University Medical Center's research computation facility is gratefully acknowledged.

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Allen, J., DeMyer, M.K., Norton, J.A. et al. Intellectuality in parents of psychotic, subnormal, and normal children. J Autism Dev Disord 1, 311–326 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01557351

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01557351

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