Schizotypal Estimators in Adolescence: the Concurrent Validity of the Risc

The validation of questionnaires intended to identify the position of a subject along a normal/schizotypal/schizophrenic continuum has always been problematic. Schizophrenic patients are not good at completing questionnaire, and validation has to depend on the identification of "at risk" groups. Watt Grubb & Elenmeyer-Kimling (1982) found that the adolescent offspring of schizophrenics show the negative schizophrenic symptomology of interpersonal disharmony and emotional instability. The study reported here, using a sample of 174 adolescents of both sexes, considers the validity of the Rust Inventory of Schizotypal Cognitions (RISC), a psychometric questionnaire for the positive cognitive symptoms of the schizotypal personality. It is shown that the negative schizophrenic symptoms of social dysfunction and emotional instability as measured by the Minnesota Counselling Inventory are positively and significantly correlated with positive schizotypal symptomology as measured by the RISC.