The relationships between early maladaptive schemas and emotion regulation difficulty with emotional eating and psychological symptoms in adults

The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between early maladaptive schemas, emotion regulation difficulty, emotional eating and psychological symptoms in adults. The research was carried out on a total of 390 participants resident in İzmir, 212 (54,4 %) of whom were women and 178 (45,6 %) were men. The ages of the participants were between 18 and 65. In this study Demographic Information Form, Young Schema Questionnaire- Short Form 3 (YSQ-SF3), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were applied to the participants. In this study independent sample t test and ANOVA analyzes were used to examine whether early maladaptive schemas, difficulties in emotion regulation, emotional eating and psychological symptoms differ according to demographic characteristics. Relationships between variables were tested with Pearson correlation analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to determine the variables predicting the psychological symptoms. The results of the study revealed that early maladaptive schemas, difficulties in emotion regulation, emotional eating and psychological symptoms were correlated with each other. It was observed that there was a significant difference between gender in terms of mean scores of disconnection, unrelenting standards and other directedness schema domains, awareness and goals sub-dimensions of difficulties in emotion regulation, emotional eating, and anxiety sub-dimension of psychological symptoms. As a result of the hierarchical regression analysis; impaired autonomy, disconnection, impaired limits, other directedness and unrelenting standards and clarity, strategies, and impulse sub-dimensions were found to significantly predicted psychological symptoms. In another analysis; impaired autonomy, impaired limits, unrelenting standards and non-acceptance and goals, impulse sub-dimensions were found to be significantly predicted emotional eating behavior. The findings were discussed in the context of relevant literature and, the results and recommendations were presented. Keywords Early Maladaptive Schemas, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation, Emotional Eating, External Eating, Restrictive Eating, Psychological Symptoms.