Parental Characteristics in Relation to Diagnosis and Neurological Status in Childhood Psychosis

¹ Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Twenty-six psychotic children were examined by means of psychological tests and EEGs. The parents of these patients were also tested with the EPI and the Grid Test of Thought Disorder. The mothers of children with the symptom of autism tended to have some cognitive disorganization, which was less common in the mothers of children without the symptom. The extraversion and neuroticism scores of all parents were not markedly different from population statistics.

The incidence of EEG abnormality in the children was high and not related to diagnosis or other criteria.

These findings are interpreted as providing suggestive evidence for a two-factor theory of childhood psychosis. It is postulated that a neurological disorder is a necessary condition for the development of such a disorder; and that a second process related to parental characteristics is also involved, which has the effect of determining the particular symptomatic manifestations seen in the psychotic child.