Bias Against Genetic Hypotheses in Adoption Studies
- 1 November 1975
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of General Psychiatry
- Vol. 32 (11), 1365-7
- https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1975.01760290033003
Abstract
Genetic factors are implicated in the cause of psychopathological disorders whenever the incidence of disorder is greater among the adopted-away offspring of affected parents than among those of control (unaffected) parents. The lack of information about most parents who give their children up for adoption could result in the inclusion of a substantial number of high-risk parents in the control groups. This could bias an adoption study against a genetic hypothesis. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory scores of two groups of pregnant unwed mothers were compared to those of two other groups: married pregnant women and 18-year-old women. Comparisons disclosed that the unwed mothers had significant elevations on five to the nine clinical scales. Elevations on psychopathic deviancy and schizophrenia were particularly substantial. These results indicate a requirement to select control group parents who are representative of the general population.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Adopted Offspring of Women Criminal OffendersArchives of General Psychiatry, 1972
- Psychoses in the Offspring of Schizophrenic Monozygotic Twins and their Normal Co-TwinsThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1971
- A polygenic theory of schizophrenia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1967