Comparison of Early Maladaptive Schemas and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies between Obese and Normal Weight Women

Over the past years, due to the lifestyle modifications, obesity has widely been recognized as a major public health problem which affects societies worldwide. Recently, evidences have shown that early maladaptive schemas are strongly associated with eating psychopathology. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the differences in early maladaptive schemas and cognitive emotion regulation strategies between obese women and matched normal weight controls.

This research is a comparative (analytical), case control study. The cases were 110 obese women selected by random sampling method among those women who referred to Farhangian clinic in Kashan city. The same number of subjects with normal weight has also been considered as controls. Data was collected by the use of standard instruments: questionnaires of early maladaptive schemas questionarie (Young, 1999), and cognitive emotion regulation strategies questionarie (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2001). The data were analyzed by t-test and SPSS 22 statistical method.                                                                                      

Based on the results, obese women experienced significantly more severe emotional deprivation, distrust/ misbehavior, and social isolation. Furthermore, adaptive and maladaptive strategies in cognitive emotion regulation were significantly different between obese and normal weight women,

According to the results, both early maladaptive schemas and deficits in cognitive emotion regulation may potentially play roles in psychopathology of obesity. These findings suggest that applying interventions on early maladaptive schemas and adaptive emotion regulation strategies could be beneficial in obesity treatment.