Am J Psychiatry 1991; 148:1182-1188
Copyright © 1991 by American Psychiatric Association
Social competence and positive and negative symptoms: a longitudinal study of children and adolescents at risk for schizophrenia and affective disorder
RH Dworkin, G Bernstein, LM Kaplansky, JD Lipsitz, A Rinaldi, SL Slater, BA Cornblatt and L Erlenmeyer-Kimling
Department of Anesthesiology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY.
OBJECTIVE: The authors longitudinally examined social competence and
positive and negative symptoms in children at risk for schizophrenia,
children at risk for affective disorder, and matched normal subjects.
METHOD: The subjects were offspring of parents with schizophrenia or
affective disorder and normal comparison subjects matched on age, sex, and
socioeconomic status. Ratings of social competence (Premorbid Adjustment
Scale), affective flattening and poverty of speech (Scale for the
Assessment of Negative Symptoms), and positive formal thought disorder
(Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms) were based on videotaped
psychiatric interviews conducted in childhood (N = 144), early adolescence
(N = 127), and adolescence (N = 106). RESULTS: In childhood, there were no
significant group differences. In early adolescence, the subjects at risk
for schizophrenia had poorer social competence than those at risk for
affective disorder and the normal subjects. In early adolescence, the
subjects at risk for schizophrenia also had greater positive thought
disorder than those at risk for affective disorder but did not differ
significantly from the normal subjects; there were no differences in
negative symptoms. In adolescence, the subjects at risk for schizophrenia
had poorer social competence and greater positive and negative symptoms
than the adolescents at risk for affective disorder and the normal
subjects. CONCLUSIONS: During early adolescence and adolescence, poor
social competence may be more characteristic of children at risk for
schizophrenia than those at risk for affective disorder. Higher levels of
positive and negative symptoms may also be specific to subjects at risk for
schizophrenia, but only during adolescence.
