The role played by stress in the prognosis of schizophrenia is not entirely clear. It has been suggested that high premorbid stress levels before first-time psychiatric admission for schizophrenia will be related to better outcome. Subjects, first-time psychiatric admissions classified as schizophrenic by either Schneider's First Rank Symptoms, the New Haven Schizophrenia Index, or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual II, were assessed at hospitalization and two-year follow-up by structured, standardized interview schedules, and were bifurcated into high- and low-events groups based on their mean life events score. One outcome measure represented the overall level of follow-up functioning; four other measures were residualized on initial assessment scores to provide outcome indices independent of initial scores. Results indicated that a high level of life events stress in the year prior to a first admission for schizophrenia was related to better outcome at the two-year follow-up when the Schneiderian and New Haven diagnostic criteria were used. Further analyses suggested that these results could not be attributed to demographic factors, premorbid status, severity of pathology at admission, or interim stress levels, and probably were not exclusively the effect of "precipitating" life events shortly before hospitalization. (Author/NRB)