Investigation of the effect of psychological birthorder on perceived parental attitudes and early maladaptive schemas in adults

Aims: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of psychological birth order on perceived parental attitudes and early maladaptive schemas. Methods: In this study, the Psychological Birth Order Inventory, Perceived Parental Attitudes Scale-Child Form, and Young’s Schema Scale were used. The sample consisted of 189 women and 102 men. Relational and predictive analyses were conducted regarding birth order, psychological birth order, perceived parental attitudes, and schema domains. Results: There was a moderate positive relationship between the sibling rank of the women who participated in the study and the emotional deprivation schema area. For female participants, being the middle child was found to have a moderately positive relationship with emotional deprivation, dependence, pessimism, and defectiveness schemas. A weak positive relationship was found between being the middle child and emotional warmth maternal attitude, overprotective mother/father attitude, and rejecting father attitude scores. Conclusion: The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between psychological birth.order and perceived parental attitudes as well as early maladaptive schemas.