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79
Enquiry
regarding
children of
mentally
defective
parents.
During the year a survey of the children of parents, one of whom had been dealt
with under the Mental Deficiency Acts, or who had formerly attended a special
school, was conducted at the request of the Special Committee of the Board of
Control.
The social circumstances were investigated by Miss M. A. Thomas, M.A., and
as many children as possible were seen by Drs. J. G. Duncan and A. C. Williams,
whose report appears in Volume III (Part I) of this Report.
Dr. Shrubsall has further analysed the returns with a view to ascertaining
whether there is any diiference between the children of defectives of different sexes,
or between the children of married and unmarried women. It will be appreciated
that practically all the male parents were married, since there is no means of tracing
the offspring of unmarried male defectives.
For the purpose of comparison, the intelligence quotient, i.e., the mental age as
ascertained by tests divided by the chronological age in the case of children, or by 14
in the case of those above that age, has been utilised. The quotient in the case
of the parents has been based on the result of the examination on the occasion on
which they were last seen. The average quotient of all parents was 60 • 4, and of all
the children 82-7. Analysing the results further the following results were
obtained :—

The average intelligence quotient of the children under each category was as
follows:—

For comparison there is given below the corresponding average intelligence
quotients for children one of whose parents had attended a special school for the
mentally defective, but had not required to be dealt with under the Mental Deficiency
Acts as a social failure. The intelligence quotient of the parent is not known in these
instances, but would range between 60 and 70.

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