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Knowledge of the frequency of parental deprivation during childhood has hitherto been seriously handicapped by 1. Comparisons between unlike samples, 2. Unrepresentative samples due to selection, 3. Chance errors in sampling, 4. Fallacies in deduction. These factors have been discussed, and a number of tables presented which contain data from previous studies on the frequency of parental deprivation in the childhood of apparently normal persons and of various groups of psychiatric patients. Considerable evidence has accumulated (not reviewed in detail here) that indicates an unusually high frequency of both parental death and separation (for various reasons) during the Childhood of individuals who subsequently manifest delinquent, antisocial or psychopathic behaviour. The evidence has hitherto been inconclusive 1. That an increased frequency of parental deprivation is also associated with other forms of mental disorder, 2. That loss of the mother is necessarily more significant than loss of the father, 3....

An investigation of the family background data of a large sample of alcoholics indicated that a difference in birth rank reflects the presence or absence of early parental deprivation. This suggested that birth rank as an independent variable was not relevant to the etiology of alcoholism. The investigation also showed that female alcoholics sustained parental losses during early childhood much more frequently than male alcoholics. The latter finding—in conjunction with the data of other investigators on parental loss and psychosis— stimulated some speculation as to the differential importance of parental loss for each sex and suggestions for further research in this area.

The present paper reviews some pertinent literature on the effects of parental deprivation during early childhood. Several studies of parental separation during early childhood are presented. These studies tend to show that separation of child from parents, either for a short or a long period, will result in significant behavioral change.

Early workers studying children because of persistent delinquency concluded that the child's inability to make relationships was the central core from which all other behaviour disturbances arose. The long term effects of institutionalization and repeated moves from foster mother to foster mother, it was asserted, were basic in any consideration of aetiology. The difficulty of treating these patients and the permanency of ill-effects was emphasized. In his well-known World Health Organization Bulletin, Bowlby (1951) concluded ‘on the basis of this varied evidence it appears that there is a very strong case indeed for believing that prolonged separation of a child from his mother (or mother substitute) during the first five years of life stands foremost amongst the causes of delinquent character development’. Whilst the practical conclusions of this publication led to a remarkable change in outlook and improvement in the institutional care of children, his theoretical conclusions have drawn heavy fire. Andry (1960) directed attention to the ‘defective role frequently played by the father and not only that of the all-too-often mentioned mother’. Wootton (1959, 1962) regards as an unproven hypothesis ‘that maternal deprivation leads to life-long damage and is a major factor in criminal behaviour’. She argues that Bowlby has overstated the case for the separation experience itself, without due regard to the conditions the child has come from or goes to, and has given scant recognition to hereditary factors. Wootton notes that relatively few investigations have traced the fortunes of the maternally deprived after adolescence, let alone throughout life, and hence there is no definitive proof that the damaging effects of the separation experience are irreversible. Further, the maternal separation hypothesis relates to only a minority of the delinquent population (the ‘affectless psychopath’) and there is no experience of the general population at large of comparable infantile experiences. A review of the recent literature (Lancet, 1966, British Medical Journal, 1967), indicates that various investigations into the long term effects of childhood parental deprivation and bereavement in the causation of adult mental ill health and behaviour disturbance have yielded inconclusive results. Whilst this state of affairs suggests that further studies are necessary to detect consistent patterns of parental deprivation, these patterns by themselves may not indicate precise modes of aetiology, but when taken into consideration with other objective data of family background may yield the development or refutation of hypotheses regarding various determinants of psychiatric disorder. In the light of these contemporary uncertainties we have re-examined the hypothesis that early adverse experiences are related to subsequent delinquency and criminality. By statistical procedures we examined two prison populations, one consisting of short term male first offenders of less serious crime, and the other of male recidivists and those convicted of serious crime. Various groups from the general population at large have been incorporated to act as the control group.

The above statement contained in the Task Force Report on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime has been well documented by empirical data. For the most part, inquiries into the motivational factors in female delinquency have the family as a common focus. Several decades of research have produced evidence suggesting that female delinquency is largely attributable to deficient family relationships which require that the girl seek compensatory affectional responses outside the home. For example, Monahan found that both male and female delinquents are less likely to come from intact family backgrounds than their nondelinquent counterparts, but that “among the females the proportions from incomplete families are so high that there can hardly be any doubt as to the importance of parental deprivation to them” (1957: 258). Similar observations may be found in more recent studies (Trese, 1962; Morris, 1964; Cockburn and Maclay, 1965; Cowie et a1., 1968; Adamek and Dager, 1969; Cloninger and Guze, 1970; and Reige, 1972).

Early parental deprivation was identified from coded information in 1,103 case histories of psychiatric patients over the age of 60. Associations were sought between maternal, paternal or combined deprivation and any diagnostic category in this geriatric group.

Manic-depressive psychosis is considered to comprise two different clinical entities, bipolar and monopolar. This dichotomy is based mainly on Western clinical material. The present study aimed at eliciting any differences that might exist between monopolar and bipolar manic patients in respect of three factors: (i) occurrence of psychiatric illness in first degree relatives; (ii) parental death before the patient's 15th birthday; and (iii) socio-economic status of the patient. Venkoba Rao (1973) studied the differences between monopolar and bipolar endogenous depressives on three factors: occurrence of affective disorder (including suicide) in first degree relatives; parental loss before the patient's 12th birthday, and the extent of ‘jointness' of the patient's family.

Four case histories of a representative sample of young adult glue sniffers who had progressed to using illicit drugs or abusing alcohol or both contained several common factors that may have been relevant in the transition. For example, all had suffered parental deprivation or rejection in childhood leading to a state of chronic stress, and all had progressed from sniffing glue to inhaling heroin and thence to "snorting" and injecting heroin. The exact reason for the transition from glue sniffing to misusing other substances was not clear. Nevertheless, although these cases represent only a minority of glue sniffers, the problem of transition may be more common than hitherto supposed.

Despite a large number of studies it remains unclear whether early parental loss or separation experiences from parents are associated with depression in adult life. In order to circumvent the possible confounding influence of psychiatric patient status, a non-clinical group was used to study any influence of early permanent parental loss and early parental separation on subsequent depressive experience in adulthood. The depressive experience of 236 post-graduate students was assessed using measures of trait depression, self-esteem, alienation and incidence of depressive episodes. Depressive experience was not increased in those 27 subjects who had been permanently separated from a biological parent before the age of 16 years. When duration of separation from influential parent-figures was examined it was found that trait depression scores were increased in those who had experienced longer separation, but those subjects also rated their parent-figures as having been less caring. Findings are consistent with the view that it is the quality of any parental contribution, rather than its continuity, that is associated with subsequent depressive experience in adulthood.

A significant relation between parental deprivation and incidence of emotional illness has been noted in several reports (Dorpat et al., 1965; Greer, 1964; Nichol, 1964; Heckel, 1963; Gardner, 1956; Brown, 1961; Beck et al., 1963). Whereas the effect of maternal deprivation has often been implicated in the development of serious psychopathological states, effects of paternal deprivation have received comparatively little attention (Bowlby, 1951; Spitz and Wolf, 1946; Provence and Ritvo, 1961; Provence and Lipton, 1962; Wheeler, 1956), and treatment has received even less. Gregory (1965) suggested that the identification model provided and the control normally exercised by the parent of the same sex are more crucial in preventing delinquency among children than is any aspect of the relation with the parent of the opposite sex. McCord and associates (1962) noted that boys developed feminineaggressive behavior, accompanied by intense sexual anxiety, if the father had been absent when the child was between the ages of six and twelve years. The father's absence correlated especially well with gang delinquency. In the study by Wylie and Delgado (1959), mothers sought psychiatric help for fatherless boys only in times of crises, under external pressure, usually from schools. The boys were difficult to treat because the mother could not control their aggressive behavior. Among prominent observations were the following: the boys

For various evidences of parental deprivation and family history of psychiatric illness, 748 consecutive psychiatric patients were examined systematically at admission. the sample was characterized and stratified for age, sex, and socioeconomic and marital status; a matched control population was then obtained from consecutive admissions to the general wards of the same hospital. The various psychiatric and control groups were then compared. There were no differences in parental deprivation in childhood but marked differences in the occurrence of psychiatric illness in family members. It is concluded that if environmental factors turn out to outweigh genetic factors in the genesis of psychiatric illnesses, associational environmental, not deprivational ones, are critical.

The incidence of parental deprivation and "broken homes" was found to be very similar among individuals suffering from dementia praecox, manic-depressive psychosis, alcoholic state, and "other psychoses," and in normal control subjects. However, it was significantly higher in psychoneurotics and psychopathic personalities. With respect to causes of deprivation, it was noted that mental illness constituted a significant source of parental deprivation in 2 groups only—dementia praecox and manic-depressive psychosis. Divorce, separation, or desertion occurred most frequently in the parents of psychopathic personalities and psychoneurotics. Statistics concerning the age at which deprivation occurred and the parent lost did not exhibit any significant trend. There was apparent tendency for increased incidence of parental deprivation in schizophrenic patients whose illness occurred before the age of 20. The incidence of various types of psychiatric abnormalities was almost identical in the siblings of both depriv...

His propensity to deal with the symptomatic aspects of depression, without regarding nosological classification of psychiatric diseases, creates some difficulties. Where he attempts to differentiate neurotic from true, endogenous depressions, Beck utilizes only cross-sectional symptomatology, and he finally concludes that there are no specific signs and symptoms, aside from delusions, to distinguish psychotic from neurotic depressions. Thus he supports the thesis that the two conditions differ only in quantitative aspects. However, in the reviewer's experience, longitudinal studies indicate a high incidence of hysterical reactions, alcoholism, and other pathological features in the personality of individuals with neurotic depressions, as well as the absence of manic episodes. After offering data which purport to indicate a higher incidence of orphanage in depressed individuals, Beck develops the thesis that parental deprivation in childhood may be a factor in later development of severe depression. Elsewhere, the reviewer has recorded detailed criticism of these data and

RECENT reviews 1,2 testify the inconclusive results of various investigations into the long-term effects of childhood parental deprivation and bereavement in the causation of adult mental ill-health and behavior disturbance. Schizophrenia, depression, neurosis, psychopathic disorder, attempted suicide, and drug addiction as well as alcoholism have been recently studied. Methodological difficulties abound. Gregory 3 has listed these as: (1) comparisons between unlike samples, (2) selection which may lead to the samples not being truly representative of the universe from which they are drawn: (3) failure to allow for chance error in sampling and to apply tests of statistical significance to differences observed; and (4) a number of common fallacies which have frequently invalidated deductions, namely unjustified generalization, and unjustified specificity. McConaghy and Lovibond 4 have recently attacked the formalistic attitude to certain aspects of methodology, an attribute which manifests itself particularly in the

The association of early parental deprivation with the subsequent development of psychopathology has been reported by a large number of authors. 1 The systematic studies published prior to 1958 have been well summarized in a critical review by Gregory, who focused particularly on the sources of error in these studies. 2 Brown 3 recently reported a significant relationship between parental loss in childhood and adult depression. He found that 41% of 216 depressed adult patients had lost a parent through death before the age of 15; this incidence was found to be significantly greater than the incidence of orphanhood in the general population in England (12%) and in a comparison group of 267 medical patients (19.6%). The previous studies of orphanhood and psychopathology had certain methodological limitations which pose difficulties in evaluating the obtained relationships. First, when the isolation of the criterion group depends

THE PAST 35 years have seen the publication of more than 50 reports which have been concerned with the relationships of early parental deprivation to the development of psychiatric illness. In spite of this, the significance of childhood parental loss in the histories of adults with mental disorders remains unknown, or unclear at best. Witness the following conflicting statements which have appeared recently in the literature: "Maternal bereavement occurred more frequently in . . . psychoneurotic patients than in the total population." 1 "Parental loss incidence in neurotics and controls was almost identical." 2 ". . . schizophrenic patients . . . have suffered loss of a mother in childhood by an amount that differs significantly from the control group." 3 "The results ... do not confirm the presence of a higher incidence of overall parental deprivation in schizophrenic patients than in normal controls." 4 Other evidence attesting to the inconclusive state

Attention has been devoted in recent years to the possible association of parental deprivation in childhood and adolescence with the development of mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, in later life. Previous reports have varied in both statistical data and interpretation. Wahl, 1 Gregory, 2 Hilgard and Newman, 3 and we 4 have reviewed some of these earlier reports. Our previous study failed to indicate the occurrence of a higher incidence of parental deprivation in schizophrenic patients than in control subjects or in individuals suffering from other psychoses. Earlier reports have been criticized on the basis of failure to take into consideration the declining rate of orphanage in the normal population, in succeeding decades of the 20th century. It is apparent now that this factor must be considered when comparing the incidence of parental deaths in an experimental group and in a control group