Institutional rearing and diagnostic outcome in children of schizophrenic mothers. A prospective high-risk study.

Within a prospective, longitudinal study of offspring of schizophrenic mothers (so-called high-risk children), diagnostic outcome (schizophrenia, "schizotypal" personality disorder, other diagnoses, and no mental illness) was predicted by the mother's age at first hospitalization and by institutionalization during the first five years of life. Institutionalization was unrelated to adult psychopathology in a low-risk control group. These results are interpreted as supporting a diathesis-stress model of schizophrenic origin.