An examination of the relationship between early maladaptive schemas of mother and their adult children in terms of personality traits and defense mechanisms

Early maladaptive schemas, which affect the individual throughout his/ her life and are associated with negative childhood experiences, can be transferred to the next generation through various factors. The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between early maladaptive schemas of mothers and their adult children in terms of defense styles and personality traits used by adult children. For this purpose, a total of 318 people, 159 mothers and 159 children, participated in the study on a voluntary basis. In the study, participants were given the Young Schema Questionnaire, Short Form 3 (YSQ-SF3), The Big Five-50 Personality Questionnaire (B5KT-50-Tr), The Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ), Informed Consent Form and Demographic Data Form. Statistical analyzes were performed using the Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS 21). Defense mechanisms and personality traits were evaluated by dividing them into levels. After the normality analysis, the existence of the relationship between the early maladaptive schemas of the mother and adult children was revealed. According to the Dependent Sample t-Test result, when the similarity between the early maladaptive schemas of mothers and adult children is examined according to the levels of defense mechanisms and personality traits, it has been concluded that this similarity differs for certain schema domains.