SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS AO1

• One social factor implicated in schizophrenia is living in an urban area. We have known since 1939 that there is a higher prevalence of schizophrenia in people living in urban areas compared with rural areas.
• Faris & Dunham (1939) reported a greater incidence of the disorder when comparing the densely populated inner-city areas of Chicago with the less populated outskirts of the city. The reason for higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas is likely to be due to specific environmental features of urban life.
• Krabbendam & van Os (2005) identified factors such as the greater socioeconomic adversity for urban dwellers as well as environmental pollution, overcrowding, drug abuse and exposure to infectious agents. One of the most likely candidates could be the greater social stress that occurs from living in a densely populated area.
• A further sociocultural explanation of schizophrenia explores ethnicity and discrimination. Since the 1970’s statistics have shown that higher than expected numbers of individuals of Afro-Caribbean descent are diagnosed with schizophrenia. This group is also more likely to be compulsorily admitted as opposed to voluntarily admitted to psychiatric hospitals (Ineichen, 1984).
• The explanation cannot be genetic because the increased risk is not apparent in studies conducted in the Caribbean (Mahy et al, 1999). Therefore, the additional stress induced through migration to a difference culture was suggested as being a reasonable explanation for the statistics.
• However, the increased risk and diagnosis rates were not only found in first generation migrants, but higher rates of schizophrenia were also being noted in the children of Afro-Caribbean migrants in the UK (Harrison et al, 1988). As a result, researchers have suggested that discrimination in society and in psychiatry are likely explanations for the higher incidence of diagnosis of schizophrenia in Afro- Caribbean individuals in the UK.