Early Maladaptive Schemas, Metacognitive Beliefs, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Orphanage and Non-Orphanage Adolescents

Orphanage children and adolescents might experience major mental issues due to lacking family-related advantages. Such problems include generating internalizing and externalizing disorders, as well as maladaptive and antisocial behaviors. Due to unsatisfied primary emotional needs, they may use maladaptive schemas, i.e., responsible for developing aggressive and antisocial behaviors in them. The early maladaptive schemas often unconsciously affect the information processing system and are activated automatically. Cognitive emotion regulation is defined as an individual's thoughts post negative events. Cognitive emotion regulation strategies are mostly dependent on an individual’s metacognitive strategies; that refers to how one manages and modifies thoughts after assessing feelings and psychological status in different situations. Emotion regulation could be learned through family modeling and influenced by parenting styles during a child’s development. Therefore, orphanages, who lack a regular family structure experience, may develop inappropriate behavioral expressions of emotions as a result of applying poor emotion regulation strategies. Thus, the present study aimed to compare early maladaptive schemas, metacognition, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies between the orphanage and non-orphanage adolescents. Data in this regard are scarce; therefore, the current research aimed to provide a framework for preventive and therapeutic programs while addressing the existing ambiguities.

This was a retrospective (casual/comparative) study. The study population included all adolescents (13-17-year-olds) in Tehran and Karaj Cities, Iran. The study sample included 191 adolescents, 90 of whom were selected using a convenience sampling technique from orphanage adolescents. Moreover, 101 of the study subjects were non-orphanages and selected by the multi-stage cluster sampling method. To ensure the orphanage subjects enjoyed a healthy Intellectual Quotient (IQ) range (≥90), the Raven's Progressive Matrices test was performed in them.Additionally, non-orphanage adolescents were evaluated in terms of IQ, according to their school-provided academic scores (grade point average: ≥15.20). The study inclusion criteria included the lack of severe diseases or psychiatric disorders; for orphanage adolescents, a history of living in supporting organizations without their family since the age of ≤3 years, and non-orphanage adolescents to live with their family since birth. All study subjects completed the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF), Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ), and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). The obtained data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA).

The collected results revealed a significant difference between the orphanage and non-orphanage adolescents’ early maladaptive schemas in terms of its components. These components included emotional deprivation (p=0.009), failure (p=0.004), dedication (p=0.002), emotional inhibition (p=0.032), and unrelenting standards (p=0.027). The study groups also significantly differed in metacognitive beliefs; orphanage adolescents experienced lower cognitive confidence, compared to their non-orphanage counterparts (p<0.001) in the components of metacognitive beliefs. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the two groups in the cope/reception (p=0.012) and blaming others (p=0.003) components of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The two study groups demonstrated no significant difference in other components of the research variables.

The present findings indicated that, compared to non-orphanage adolescents, orphanage ones used maladaptive schemas and experienced disrupted metacognitive beliefs, especially concerning cognitive confidence. Besides, they were weaker in applying appropriate cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Consistent with the expectations, these results highlighted the lack of family-related needs in orphanages. Additionally, their failure to exploit the family environment and parenting benefits may develop early maladaptive schemas in them, especially in components related to emotional fulfillment. This can unconsciously influence their metacognition abilities, and consequently, their failure to implement proper metacognition strategies, especially when emotional issues are considered. Such distortions in the cognitive processes of emotions may lead this group to use inappropriate cognitive emotion regulation strategies. These findings could be used to develop preventive, rehabilitative, and therapeutic plans by the experts.