Relationship between Parental Educations, Family Population, Marriage Status, Age and Birth Order with Schizotypal Personality Features

Research on schizotypal personality in the general population may provide a particular opportunity to study the biological, cognitive and social markers of vulnerability to schizophrenia without the confounding effects of long term hospitalization,medication and severe psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the some sociocultural background of the origin and the schizotypalpersonality features. A group of 749 normal participants (380 male and 369 female from colleges of Shiraz University) took part in this research. Participants answered to schizotypal personality scale (STA). Results suggested that subjects withlower parental educations, high member families and later born children, in contrast to comparison subjects, had significantly increased schizotypy scores. With respect to age and marriage status, the results showed the effects of these factors are neglectable. These findings are discussed with reference to studies investigating demographic correlates of schizotypy as well as schizophrenia. Furthermore, characterizing differencesin the epidemiology of schizotypy between populations may help generate factors that could influence its cause and course.