A couple comes into your office seeking advice on whether or not they should adopt a specific child. The biological mother of the child has schizophrenia and is thus unable to care for him. The couple would like to know the chances that the child will

develop the disorder. Neither of the prospective parents has a history of mental illness. Use the results from the Finland study that is presented in your text to explain the potential risks to the couple.

What will be an ideal response?

Researchers chose their participants from a national sample of Finnish adopted children. Some of the adoptees had biological mothers who were diagnosed with schizophrenia while others were born to mothers without the disorder. The adopted family environments were classified as being either healthy or disordered.
At the conclusion of the study, researchers found that approximately 37% of the children who had both a schizophrenic biological mother and a disordered family environment developed a “schizophrenic spectrum disorder”; however, only 5% were diagnosed with schizophrenia. By comparison, approximately 6% of the children born to schizophrenic mothers and reared in healthy environments were diagnosed with a “schizophrenic spectrum disorder.” Children born to mothers who did not have schizophrenia and who were raised in either healthy or disordered family environments were diagnosed with a “schizophrenic spectrum disorder” approximately 5% of the time.