Conceptual disorganization in children at risk for schizophrenia.

The present study investigated the presence of conceptual disorganization among children at risk for future emotional disturbance. 105 children born to schizophrenic, depressed, and unaffected mothers were administered the Object Sorting Test (OST) which was scored for both developmental quality and the gradations of deviant responses. The results indicated that children with schizophrenic mothers exhibited more conceptual disorganization and lower scores for developmental quality in concept formation on the OST than did children of either depressed or unaffected mothers. For the three groups of children, lower scores for developmental quality in concept formation were significantly associated with ratings of greater severity in overall behavior dysfunction.