Birth Order, Family Size, and Schizophrenia

Sociodemographic factors of schizophrenia in Basra

“…Present study also reveals considerable inequality of the distribution with over presentation of first born in small families (7 first born were compared with one who was last born), and a tendency toward over presentation of last born than first born in medium -sized and large families ,16 last born were compared to 9 who were first born. This study is similar to the finding of Baryy and Barry 24 but opposaite with those of Sanda rarja 25…”

The Problem of Birth Order and Schizophrenia: A Negative Conclusion

“…Schooler i 964reported for example that among males from middle-class families a significant proportion were last-born or from the last half of the sibship, while among males from working-class families a significant proportion were first-born or from the first half of the sibship. These findings are, of course, counter to the argument advanced by Barry, III and Barry, Jr. (1967) in relating birth order effects to sibship size and socio-economic status. with the group investigated by Solomon and Nuttall but it does seem that analysis by socio-economic class will not help to clarify the disagreements between studies.…”

“…Schooler did not give data by sibship size on the male patients but stated that no overall birth-order effect was observed for them. For all sibship sizes combined, males were: late in birth order in Granville-Grossman's sample (1966); early in birth order in the present two samples and in Solomon and Nuttall's sample (1966); and showed no significant effect in the sample of Barry, III and Barry, Jr. (1967). Thus from six samples three incompatible results…”

“…Analyses of data from the present two sam@les of U.S. patients, the sample of U.S. patients reported by Barry, III and Barry, Jr. (1967), and the British sample of Granville-Grossman (1966) have failed to demonstrate a consistent birth order pattern for either male or female schizophrenics, even when sibship size is taken into account. The relationship between birth order and sibship size noted by Barry, III and Barry, Jr. (1967) does hold in most of the schizophrenic samples considered here, but the trend is relative within the given sample. Thus it has not been shown across samples that patients from small sibship sizes tend to be early-born and those from larger sizes late-born; instead it has been shown only that, within the sample, patients from small sibships tend to be earlier-born than patients from larger sizes.…”

Descriptive Study of Cases of Schizophrenia in the Malian Population

“…The patients who were the rst born of the siblings were the most affected by schizophrenia in our study (31.1% of cases). Although in several studies it emerges the predominance of rstborn presented schizophrenia, some authors recommend caution about evoking a causal link (18,19). We found a consanguinity rate of 30.5% in schizophrenic patients.…”