Explaining family performance based on early maladaptive schemas: The mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation in married women

Early maladaptive schemas are highly ineffective and by affecting individuals’ emotional experiences, lead to an inability to individually and socially live and affect their family functioning. Family functioning is the effort and ability of family members to balance the family system. Satisfying the childchr('39')s emotional and physical needs in the family and through the manifestations of the childchr('39')s sufficient attachment forms adaptive schemas about self and others. Such a process generates the feeling of being valued, independent, worthy, and loved as well as providing care to the individual and determine how individuals respond to the social fabric. The existence of inconsistent schemas with fundamental emotional themes adversely impacts the process of identifying, understanding, and regulating emotions. The current study aimed to explain family functioning based on early maladaptive schemas by the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation in married women.

The present descriptive and correlational study consisted of 600 married women referring to Imam Khomeini and Qeytariyeh Cultural Centers in Tehran City, Iran, in 2019. Accordingly, by the convenience sampling method, 350 individuals were selected; after dropping 26 distorted questionnaires, the final sample size reached 324. The inclusion criteria of the study included living in Tehran, having at least one year of experience of cohabitation, and over 18 years of age. Exclusion criteria included the presence of a physical disability and chronic illnesses (i.e., asked in the form of yes/no questions via the demographic data questionnaire from each study participant), using certain medications (i.e., asked in the form of yes/no questions via the demographic data questionnaire from each research participant), and hospitalization during the last year due to biopsychological conditions (i.e., asked in the form of yes/no questions via the demographic data questionnaire from each study participant). The tools applied in the present study included the Young Schema Questionnaire–Short Form (Young, 1998), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2001), and the McMaster Family Assessment Device (Epstein et al., 1983). The structural equation modeling method was applied in AMOS and SPSS at the significance level of 0.05 to analyze the obtained data.

The present research results indicated that the total path coefficient between the early maladaptive schemas and family functioning was negative and significant (β=–0.381, p<0.001). Additionally, the path coefficient between maladaptive schemas and negative emotion regulation strategies was positive and significant (β=0.448, p<0.001) and the path coefficient between maladaptive schemas and positive emotion regulation strategies were not significant (β=–0.027, p=0.685). The path coefficient between the positive strategies of emotion regulation and family functioning was positive and significant (β=0.445, p<0.001) and the path coefficient between negative emotion regulation strategies and family functioning were negative and significant (β=–0.163, p=0.011). The indirect path coefficient between the early maladaptive schemas and family functioning was negative and significant (β=–0.085, p=0.036). Furthermore, the sum of squares of multiple correlations for the family functioning variable was equal to 0.34. This finding suggests that early maladaptive schemas and negative emotion regulation strategies explain 34% of the variance in family functioning in the explored married women.

The present study data revealed that negative emotion regulation strategies mediate the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and family functioning in married women. It is suggested that therapists consider the clinical interventions required to modify early maladaptive schemas and emotion regulation among married women to improve their daily, social, and family functioning.