The Mediating Role of Early Maladaptive Schemas and Emotion Regulation Difficulties in the Relationship between Perceived Parenting Styles and Disordered Eating Attitudes

WOS: 000418991900002In this study it was aimed to investigate the relationship between disordered eating attitude and early maladaptive schemas, emotion regulation difficulties, and perceived parenting styles in young women. Accordingly, the main aim of this study is to evaluate the mediation effect of early maladaptive schemas and emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between the perceived parenting styles and eating attitudes. The sample of this study consists of 773 female university students aged between 17-35. Eating Attitudes-Test (EAT-40), Young Schema Questionnaire- Short Form 3 (YSQ-SF3), Young Parenting Inventory (YPI) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) were used. First, the sample was classified into two groups as "high risk group for developing eating disorder" (n = 92) and "low risk group for developing eating disorder" (ri = 80) according to the scores obtained from Eating Attitude Test. Analysis has shown that the high risk group perceive both their mother and father negatively, possess more severe early maladaptive schemas and face more difficulties in the emotion regulation except for awareness sub-dimension than the low risk group. In addition, with the whole sample (N = 773), it has been found that the emotional deprivition, self-sacrifice, unrelenting standards (high standards) schemas of early maladaptive schemas and difficulties of emotion regulation total score have served as disordered eating attitude predictors. Besides, it is understood from the analysis that these variables have a mediating role in the relationship between negative perceived maternal parenting and eating attitudes. It is considered that these findings will be a guide to prepare intervention studies