Some Familial and Social Factors in Depressive Illness

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study in which a number of social, familial and demographic aspects of primary depressive illness were examined under carefully-controlled conditions. The following factors are particularly considered: 1.The size of the sibship in the depressive's family of upbringing;2.the ordinal position of the depressive in that sibship;3.the depressive's position in the sibship relative to the other sibs;4.the age of the parents at the time of the depressive individual's birth;5.the presence of a family history of severe mental illness;6.celibacy and marriage in depressive individuals;7.the fertility of depressives;8.the social class distribution of depressive illness.