Investigating the mediating role of early maladaptive schemas in the relationship between attachment related anxiety and emotion regulation difficulties in young adults

The aim of this study is to examine the mediating role of early maladaptive schemas in the relationship between anxious attachment orientation and emotion dysregulation difficulties. The sample of the study consisted of 501 university students determined by random sampling method. The research data were collected face-to-face by means of ‘Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Questionnaire-Mother form’, ‘Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Brief Form, ‘Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form-3”, ‘personal information form’. Within the scope of descriptive analyses, mean, standard deviation, kurtosis, skewness and internal consistency coefficients were calculated. The causal relationships between the research variables were tested with two-step structural equation modelling. In addition, the mediation relationship between the variables was examined by bootstrapping. According to the research findings, the structural model in which early maladaptive schemas were partially mediated showed good fit (χ2 /df = 3.186, p