| Adolescents at genetic high risk (GHR) for schizophrenia have shown social skill impairments and there is some evidence to suggest they have Theory of Mind (ToM) deficits; however no research has used a standardized behavioral measure to assess social functioning in this population nor evaluated ToM with a well-validated measure. The present study used a speech performance based task and a theoretically derived coding scheme to assess social functioning and the Eyes Test to assess ToM in 23 GHR adolescents and 31 non-psychiatric controls (NPCs). The GHR adolescents showed social skills impairments, but did not demonstrate ToM deficits. The results suggest that social skills may be a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia in GHR populations. |
