The relationship between psychological symptoms and early maladaptive schemas: The role of metacognition and emotion regulation

Psychological symptoms, that reveal itself during adulthood, develop and continue in the context of different factors. It is known that early maladaptive schemas, negative emotion regulation strategies, and impairments in metacognition are effective factors in the development and persistence of psychological symptoms. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating role of difficulty in emotion regulation and metacognition between early maladaptive schema domains and psychological symptoms. The study group consists of a total of 416 participants, 248 females and 168 males, between the ages of 18-65. Sociodemographic Information Questionnaire, Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form-3, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 and Symptom Check List-Revised were applied to the participants in order to measure the variables in the study. In the analysis, it was found that there is a high level, positive and statistically significant relationship between all variables; It was observed that both schema domains and metacognition and emotion regulation difficulties predicted psychological symptoms. Difficulty in emotion regulation and metacognition were found to have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between disconnection, impaired limits, other directedness, impaired autonomy, unrelenting standards schema domains with depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Emotion regulation difficulties and metacognition have a complete mediating effect on the relationship between unrelenting standards schema domain with somatization and phobic anxiety; difficulty in emotion regulation and metacognition were found to have a partial mediating effect between somatization and phobic anxiety with disconnection, impaired limits, other directedness and impaired autonomy schema domains. The results and limitations of the study were discussed in the context of the relevant literature.