The investigation of personality disorders in terms of early maladaptive schemas and emotion regulation strategies

In this study, the relationship between personality disorders defined in DSM-V and early maladaptive schemas, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and emotion regulation difficulties was examined. A total of 724 participants aged between 18 and 65 were reached, and the data of 701 participants were analyzed according to exclusion criteria. Participants were administered the "Sociodemographic Information Form," "Coolidge Axis II Inventory-Short Form," "Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form", "Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire" and "Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Brief Form" Independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA analysis were used to examine the variance of research variables. Pearson Moment Product Correlation Analysis was used to analyze the relationship between variables. Linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the predictability of personality disorder scores by the independent variables of the study. The scores of research variables show significant differences among participants' gender, age, marital status, education level, employment status, income level, family history of psychiatric illness, psychiatric diagnosis history, psychiatric treatment, or psychological support-seeking status. According to the correlation findings, it was found that all early maladaptive schema domains and schemas are significantly and positively correlated with personality disorders, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and emotion regulation difficulties, and negatively correlated with some adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Early maladaptive schema domains and schemas were positively correlated with maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and emotion regulation difficulties, and negatively correlated with some adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. A negative relationship was found between emotion regulation difficulties and some adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, while a positive relationship was found between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. When the findings regarding the predictability of personality disorders by early maladaptive schemas, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and emotion regulation difficulties are examined, it is seen that Borderline PD has the highest explanatory power with 68%, while Antisocial PD has the lowest with 28.2%. According to the regression results, cognitive emotion regulation strategies did not have a predictive effect on Schizotypal PD, Antisocial PD, Histrionic PD, Obsessive-Compulsive PD and emotion regulation difficulties did not have a predictive effect on Schizoid PD.