The role of early maladaptive schema domains and childhood trauma in predicting cognitive distortions

As a negative thinking and dysfunctional attitude, cognitive distortion is considered an important factor in the etiology of mental disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the role of early maladaptive schema domains and childhood trauma in predicting cognitive distortion. The research method was descriptive-correlational and the target population was all students of Urmia University in the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021. In this regard, 285 students were selected by availability sampling and were evaluated by Young's maladaptive schema (1998), Noorbakhsh's child abuse (2012) and cognitive distortions of Abdullah Zadeh and Salar (2010) questionnaires. The results of correlation coefficients showed that cognitive distortion has a positive relationship with the dimensions of childhood trauma and areas of early maladaptive schema. Also, the results of multiple regression analysis showed that early maladaptive schemas and childhood trauma significantly explain 0.63% of the total variance of cognitive distortion and primary maladaptive schema domains have a higher power in predicting cognitive distortion. The results of this study support the key role of early maladaptive schemas and childhood trauma with emphasis on the field of disconnection and rejection and the dimension of emotional child abuse as a vulnerability to cognitive distortion.