The Role of Childhood Abuse Experiences in Predicting Emotional Schemas in Adulthood

Nowadays, psychopathologists emphasize the role of emotional schemas in explaining mental disorders in adulthood. Emotional schema refers to the interpretation, evaluation, inclination to action and behavioral patterns that people use to deal with their emotions. Therefore, present research aimed to investigate the role of childhood abuse experiences in predicting emotional schemas in adulthood.

This study was a descriptive correlational study. The population included all the students of Urmia branch of Islamic Azad University in the academic year 2017-2018, from which a sample of 375 students was selected by cluster random sampling in proportionate to the number of students at each faculty. The participants responded to the Child Abuse Self-report Scale (Mohammadkhani et al., 2003) and Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (Leahy, 2002). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis.

Findings showed that there was a significant relationship between most of childhood abuse experiences, i.e. emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect and emotional schemas. Also childhood abuse experiences can significantly predict the ability of maladaptive emotional schemas, including validation, incomprehensibility, guilt, simplistic view of emotions, lack of control, demand for rationality, consensus, rumination and blame and adaptive emotional schemas, including higher values, emotional self-awareness, acceptance of feelings and emotional expression (P<0.05).

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that attention should be paid to the role of childhood abuse experiences to decrease the maladaptive emotional schemas and increase the adaptive ones and families should be informed of the severe, destructive and long-term consequences of childhood abuse experiences.