Social Functioning in Childhood May Predict Schizophrenia Risk, Study Suggests

Sharon Moore November 26, 2013

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New research has found that children with poor social functioning are at greater risk of developing schizophrenia later in life.

Schizophrenia is a rare but serious psychiatric disorder which usually begins in late adolescence and is characterised by a variety of symptoms, such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, cognitive impairment, social withdrawal, self-neglect and loss of motivation and initiative. Until now, the real cause of this mental disorder is still a subject of debate among psychological experts, but studies suggest that genetics, prenatal development, early environment, neurobiology and psychological and social processes are important contributory factors.

Social functioning linked to greater schizophrenia risk

Now, researchers from the University of Maryland have found that poor social functioning, as rated by teachers on a psychometric scale, significantly set apart children who later developed schizophrenia spectrum disorder from those who did not develop mental illness and those who developed other mental health disorders.

Social functioning is defined as “the ability to construct representations of the relations between oneself and others, and to use those representations flexibly to guide social behaviour”.

The 48-year old study involved 244 participants, of which 33 were diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 78 with other psychiatric disorders, and 133 with no mental health disorders between the ages 31 and 33 years. Whilst most of the participants who later developed schizophrenia were at high risk of the disorder due to having at least one parent who has been hospitalised for the condition, it didn’t change the strong relationship observed by the researchers between poor social functioning and schizophrenia risk. Neither was it affected by their gender or socioeconomic status.

‘Two-hit’ effect

According to the researchers, social functioning is likely to have a ‘two-hit’ effect in predicting the risk for schizophrenia. For instance, aside from being an observable marker of the illness in present years before the onset of schizophrenia, it may also contribute to chronic stress, which in turn, further increases the person’s risk of developing the disease.

“Thus social functioning can be viewed as a potential marker of a ‘first-hit,’ as well as a possible contributor to a ‘second-hit,’ “, the researchers wrote.

Their findings were published in the journal Schizophrenia Research.

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Poor Social Functioning in Childhood Linked to Greater Schizophrenia Risk