Some Familial and Social Factors in Depressive Illness

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.