An investigation of social skill and social cognition in adolescents at genetic risk for psychosis

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.