Family interaction and outcome IQ in high-risk boys

This study examined the relationship between measures of family interaction and outcome for 97 boys at risk for psychopathology from having one parent previously hospitalized for psychiatric illness. Measures of communication deviance and of activity, balance and warmth, derived from two family activities, correlated significantly with 3-yr. follow-up adaptive functioning, measured by IQ. Poor family interaction, in previous studies associated with schizophrenic symptomatology, was here correlated with poor cognitive/social/emotional functioning, suggesting that family interaction may be a broad predictor of adequacy of functioning.