Morbidity and social mobility in an upper class educational group.

Approximately 18,000 19-year-old graduates from the high schools of Norway were followed for 50 years after graduation by means of a national case register of hospitalized psychoses. Six hundred and sixty-eight graduates were found to have been admitted to a psychiatric institution. The admission rate for male graduates was found to be 95.7 % of the expected rate, while for the female sex the percentage was 115.8. In both sexes, the number of manic-depressive cases was higher than the national average, while schizophrenia was rarer. The number of admissions related to alcohol or drug addiction was much higher in the graduates, and these admissions were concentrated mainly among members of the medical professions. A detailed study was made of 450 male and 218 female graduate patients for whom information was available about the occupation of the father as well as that of the graduate himself. The hospital admission rate was significantly higher in the graduates who had an occupation lower than that of their fathers, and vice versa. Within each social group, the rate of admission was highest in the graduates who had remained in the same occupation as their fathers: Professional sons of professional fathers had an admission rate of 109 % of the expected rate, while those who had moved to other occupations had a rate of only 87 % of the expected. It would seem that inter-generational change of occupation is associated with a lowering of psychiatric morbidity. High admission rates were found in groups which can be regarded as relative failures in relation to their level of aspiration (or that of their parents) in going to high school.