Existential anxiety among university students: Predictiveness of early maladaptive schemas, locus of control and post-traumatic growth

In this research, firstly university students' levels of both existential anxiety and its sub dimensions as existential anxiety; meaninglessness anxiety, death anxiety, isolation anxiety and freedom anxiety are described. Secondly, the predictiveness of gender, traumatic events, locus of control and early maladaptive schemas on existential anxiety and each of its' sub dimensions are investigated. Afterwards, predictiveness of gender, fatal traumatic events, locus of control, early maladaptive schemas and post-traumatic growth on existential anxiety and each of its subscales is examined for the university students who have experienced traumatic events. This study was carried out with data which was gathered from 831 university students. Data was collected with Existential Anxiety Scale, Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, Young Schema Scale-Short Form 3, Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, traumatic experience questionnaire and demographic information form. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis were used for the data analysis. The findings of research reveal that levels of existential anxiety, meaninglessness anxiety, death anxiety, isolation anxiety, freedom anxiety for the university students are below the average level. Findings about prediction of existential anxiety reveal that impaired autonomy, disconnection-rejection, other- directedness, unrelenting standards domains and locus of control predict existential anxiety significantly. For the university students who has experienced traumatic events, post-traumatic growth and fatal traumatic event are other significant predictors.Findings about prediction of existential anxiety sub dimensions reveal that meaninglessness anxiety is predicted by impaired autonomy, unrelenting standards, disconnection-rejection, other-directedness, impaired limits domains and locus of control significantly. Findings about prediction of meaninglessness anxiety of university students who have experienced traumatic events reveal that impaired limits domain, disconnection-rejection domain and locus of control are not significant predictors of meaninglessness anxiety, while post-traumatic growth is a significant predictor of meaninglessness anxiety. Death anxiety is predicted significantly by impaired autonomy, other-directedness, impaired limits domains and gender (female). Predictors of death anxiety are not changed for the group that has experienced traumatic events. Findings of research also demonstrated that isolation anxiety is predicted by disconnection-rejection, impaired autonomy, unrelenting standards, impaired limits domains and locus of control significantly. In addition, predictors of isolation anxiety are not changed for the group that has experienced traumatic events. On the other hand, freedom anxiety is predicted significantly by impaired autonomy, impaired limits, disconnection-rejection domains, locus of control and experiencing traumatic events. Beside the predictors in the first group, experiencing fatal traumatic events and unrelenting standards domain are new predictors while disconnection-rejection domain is not a significant predictor. Keywords: Existential anxiety, Early maladaptive schemas, Locus of control, Post-traumatic growth,