A simple formal model of the selection of schizophrenics into social classes is developed, based on stochastic models of the process of occupational mobility. The model is estimated with data from England. Two predictions of the model are tested with data: the magnitude of the class differential in rate of schizophrenia at equilibrium, and the pattern of rates for classes in advantaged and disadvantaged ethnic groups. The model approximates the data in both tests. The major conclusion is that selection and drift together form a sufficient explanation for the class differential in rate of schizophrenia.
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William W. Eaton (1980) studied this question.