The Relationship between Perceptions of Parental Behavior and Early Maladaptive Schemas

In many researches, the role of parents’ behavior on the formation of cognitive and emotional problems in children has been emphasized. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between perceptions of parental behavior and early maladaptive schemas in children. The method of study was descriptive-analytical. The statistical population consisted of all normal students as well as those students who referred to the counseling center of Bu Ali Sina University in Hamedan in 2013. In this study, the clinical and nonclinical samples were used. The research sample consisted of 69 clinical individuals and 134non-clinical individuals. Conventional sampling and multistage stratified sampling methods were used to select the clinical and non-clinical samples, respectively. The instruments used for data collection were Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF) and Parker's Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), and the data analyzed using Pearson correlation. The analysis of the results showed a negative correlation between early maladaptive schemas and perceptions of parental caring. Positive correlation was also observed between early maladaptive schemas and perceptions of parental overprotection (P<0.05). The results showed that there were significant differences between perception of parental behavior (caring and overprotection) in clinical and non-clinical samples (P<0.05). The research findings indicated that parental behavior (caring and overprotection) is related with the formation of early maladaptive schemas of children. Therefore, the attention of specialists can be drawn to the cognitive development of individuals in interaction with primary caregivers, and to the formation of subsequent cognitive impairment.