Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Not applicable

Advisor Role

Not applicable

Abstract

Initially, all the children who had received treatment and been discharged from the West End Créche between 1962 and 1971 were selected for this study. These children were then sub-divided into groups according to where they had gone after discharge. This study considered only two of these groups, 32 children who went into the normal school system and 20 children who entered institutions after being discharged. Both groups were then examined with reference to a list of forty-two variables which provided information on the children’s background and the facilities of the treatment centre. An analysis of these variables demonstrated that seven were statistically significant. These seven variables were (1) IQ, (2)speech, (3) sex of the child, (4) the age the child began treatment, (5) the experience of a stressful situation prior to the onset of the disorder, (6) the degree of withdrawal and (7) the severity of the illness—(age of the child when he began treatment was later found to be predictive but only for the non-schizophrenic children).

An attempt was made to increase the predictive power of the variables by testing them in various combinations of two or more. These combinations consisted ofa relationship between two variables in which one or both variables must be present for the child to be represented in the school group. The two sets of variables with the highest predictive value and the lowest error term were a combination of sex of the child and/or the ability to interact with others or the combination of the absence of schizophrenia in the child’s diagnosis and/or the child’s ability to interact with people. In conclusion, it was recommended that due to the high ratio of male clients at the Créche, the number of male therapists should be increased.

Convocation Year

1974

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