Number of Childhood Friends as Reported in the Life Histories of a Psychiatrically Diagnosed Group of 1,000.

The article presents a study of the life histories of a psychiatrically diagnosed group of 1000 U.S. Air Force personals. The purpose of the study was to test one facet of the of the social isolation hypothesis and to find out if social isolation is significantly related to the development of schizophrenia, which has been stated as the mental disorder that is the result of any form of isolation that cuts a person off from intimate social relations for an extended period of time. It was designed to compare a "No Mental Disease" category with the remaining categories for differences in number of reported childhood friends. The survey for the study was done through interaction with people from a non-hospitalized population representing different cultural regions and socioeconomic statuses in the United States. Various hypotheses had been laid down for the study and were later analyzed upon. The analysis of the study revealed that social isolation as measured by the number of childhood friends may be a common denominator to other mental disorders and is hence not exclusively associated with schizophrenia.