The Relationship between Childhood Trauma and Suicidal Thoughts with the Mediating Role of Maladaptive Schemas

Childhood injuries and traumas can affect the psychological characteristics of people throughout their lives. Childhood traumas can lead to the formation of maladaptive schemas and the occurrence of suicidal thoughts in adulthood. The current research purpose was modeling suicidal thoughts based on childhood trauma with the mediating role of maladaptive schemas.

This research is a correlational study method. The statistical population of the present study is consiste of all the adults in Tehran who experienced physical and sexual adversities in childhood. The sample included 300 people with a history of childhood adversity who were selected by available sampling. In order to measure the research variables were used childhood trauma questionnaires (CTQ), Beck Suicidal Thoughts Questionnaire (BSSI), and Inconsistent Schemas Questionnaire (YSQ-SF). The data was analyzed path analysis using Amos software.    

The findings showed that the direct effect of childhood trauma on suicidal thoughts is significant (P <0.05). Also, the results show that early maladaptive schemas play an intermediate role in the relationship between childhood traumas and suicide thoughts (P <0.05).

early maladaptive schemas mediate the relationship between suicidal thoughts and childhood trauma, and to work on suicidal thoughts, the role of schemas and unfortunate childhood experiences should be considered.