Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:22:01.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Problem of Birth Order and Schizophrenia: A Negative Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling ,
Elyse Van den Bosch  and
Bruce Denham
L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032
Elyse Van den Bosch
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032
Bruce Denham
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032 University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A possible association between birth order and schizophrenia has been sought by a number of investigators. The question considered as early as 1916 by Rüdin has not been resolved satisfactorily since; late birth order has been indicated in some samples of patients (e.g. Granville-Grossman, 1966; Schooler, 1964), early birth order in others (e.g. Solomon and Nuttall, 1966; Sundararaj and Rao, 1966) and an absence of any birth order effect has been reported for still other samples (e.g. Burton and Bird, 1963; Gregory, 1959; Smith and McIntyre, 1963).

Type
Birth Order
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 115 , Issue 523 , June 1969 , pp. 659 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barry, H. Jr. (1945). “Incidence of advanced maternal age in mothers of one thousand state hospital patients.” Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 54, 186–191.Google Scholar
Barry, H. Ill, and Barry, H. Jr. (1967). “Birth order, family size, and schizophrenia.” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 17, 435–440.Google Scholar
Bero, I., Fearnley, W., Paterson, M., Pollock, G., and Vallance, R. (1967). “Birth order and family size of approved school boys.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 793–800.Google Scholar
Burton, A., and Bird, J. W. (1963). “Family constellation and schizophrenia.” J. Psychol., 55, 329–336.Google Scholar
Cattell, J. McK. (1921). American Men of Science. Garrison, N.Y.: Science Press. (Cited by Thurstone and Jenkins, 1931.)Google Scholar
Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L. (1968.) “The sibships of schizophrenics.” In Vandenberg, S. (ed.) Progress in Human Behavior Genetics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L., Rainer, J. D., and Kallmann, F. J. (1966). “Current reproductive trends in schizophrenia.” In: P. H. Hoch and J. Zubin (eds.). Psychopathology of Schizophrenia. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Nicol, S., Rainer, J. D., and Deming, W. E. (1969). “Comparison of fertility rates of schizophrenic patients in New York State.” Amer. J. Psyckiat. 125, 916–927.Google Scholar
Granville-Grossman, K. L. (1966). “Birth order and schizophrenia.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 1119–1126.Google Scholar
Greenwood, M., and Yule, G. U. (1914). “On the determination of size of family and of the distribution of characters in order of birth.” J. Roy. statist. Soc., 77, 179–199.Google Scholar
Gregory, I. (1959). “An analysis of family data on 1,000 patients admitted to a Canadian mental hospital.” Acta genet. (Basel), 9, 54–96.Google Scholar
Haldane, J. B. S., and Smith, C. A. (1948). “A simple exact test for birth-order effect.” Annals of Eugen., 14, part 2, 117–124.Google Scholar
Hansen, S. (1913). “The inferior quality of first-born children.” Eug. Rev., 5, 253–259 (data cited by Thurstone and Jenkins, 1931).Google Scholar
Hirsch, J. (1967). “Behavior-genetic, or ‘experimental’, analysis: the challenge of science versus the lure of technology.” Amer. Psychol., 22, 118–130.Google Scholar
Nichols, R. C. Unpublished data, supplied with kind permission, on National Merit Scholarship participants.Google Scholar
Roberts, B. H., and Myers, J. K. (1955). “Schizophrenia in the youngest male child of the lower middle class.” Amer. J. Psychiat., 112, 129–134 Google Scholar
Rüdin, E. (1916). Studien úber Vererbung und Neuentstehung Geistiger Störungen. I. Zur Vererbung und Neuentstehung der Dementia Praecox. Berlin: Julius Springer.Google Scholar
Russell Davis, D. (1962). “Birth order and maternal age of homosexuals.” Lancet, i, 540–541 (Correspondence).Google Scholar
Schooler, C. (1964). “Birth order and hospitalization for schizophrenia.” J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 69, 574–579.Google Scholar
Schulz, B. (1956). “Zur Frage der Erblichkeit der Schizophrenic” Acta genet. et statist, med., 6, 50–59.Google Scholar
The Scottish Council for Research in Education (1949). The Trend of Scottish Intelligence. London: University of London Press.Google Scholar
Sears, R. R., Maccoby, E., and Levin, H. (1957). Patterns of Child Rearing. Evanston, Illinois: Row Peterson.Google Scholar
Slater, E. (1962). “Birth order and maternal age of homosexuals.” Lancet, i, 69–71.Google Scholar
Smith, C. M., and McIntyre, S. (1963). “Family size, birth rank and ordinal position in psychiatric illness.” Canad. psychiat. Assoc. J., 8, 244–248.Google Scholar
Solomon, L., and Nuttall, R. (1966). “Sibling order, premorbid adjustment and remission in schizophrenia.” J. nerv. ment. Dis., 144, 37–46.Google Scholar
Sundararaj, M., and Rao, B. S. S. R. (1966). “Order of birth and schizophrenia.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 1127–1129.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L., and Jenkins, R. L. (1931). Order of Birth, Parent-Age and Intelligence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M-T. (1966). “Birth order and maternal age of psychiatric in-patients.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 1131–1141.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.