School Functioning of Children at Risk for Behavioral Pathology

• Published in: Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 1982-01, Vol.47 (5), p.12-16
• Main Authors: Fisher, Lawrence, Harder, David, Kokes, Ronald F., Schwartzman, Paul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child; Child Behavior; Child behavior disorders; Child psychopathology; Childhood mental disorders; Children; Cooperative Behavior; Educational administration; Elementary school students; Humans; Intelligence; Interpersonal Relations; Judgment samples; Male; Mental Disorders - genetics; Parents; Peer Group; Risk; Schools; Social Adjustment; Sociometrics; Teaching; Youths at risk
• ISSN: 0037-976X; 1540-5834
• DOI: 10.2307/1166025

The history of the study of the etiology of mental illness points to the importance of prospective studies of children at risk for the development of mental illness. The University of Rochester Child and Family Study is a longitudinal prospective study of 145 families in which one or both parents has been hospitalized for a major psychiatric disorder. A variety of assessments are made of the parents, the index child (who is male and age 4, 7, or 10), and the family as a whole. This Monograph reports on the relationships among the psychiatric assessment of the two parents, the child's functioning in school as judged by his teachers and peers, and the interpersonal interactions of the mother, father, and index child in a free-play setting. The major variables describing the parents are the DSM-III diagnosis of the index parent and the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) of the index parent at the time of hospitalization, and at the time of the study and the same global assessment of the spouse of the index. The diagnoses were divided into four categories: (1) schizophrenia + serious schizophrenic-like personality disorders; (2) affective psychoses; (3) nonaffective nonpsychotic disorders; and (4) affective nonpsychotic disorders. There are significant differences in the child's school functioning dependent on diagnosis and on the GAS scores. Within diagnosis the differences between affective and nonaffective disorders predict school functioning best. The diagnosis and the GAS scores also relate significantly to the characteristics of the patient in the free-play interaction. The activity, balance, and warmth in the free play are significant predictors of the child's school functioning. Both the parent variables (diagnosis and GAS) and the free-play variables have significant independent relations to the child's functioning in school.