Investigating the Role of Attachment and Emotional Schemas in the Prediction of Psychological Symptoms

Beliefs about emotions or elaborations of emotional processes have been found to be associated with various clinical problems. It is unclear how such of them may contribute to symptomatology. The present study examines the associations of attachment styles and emotional schemas with psychological symptoms. The sample consisted of 250 participants aged 18–46 years. The Experience in Close Relationship Scale (ECRS) was used to assess attachment, the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale-2 (LESS-2) was used to assess emotional schemas, and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R) was used to evaluate psychological symptoms. Correlation and regression analyses were used. Anxious attachment showed stronger correlations with psychological symptoms than avoidant attachment, and the correlation patterns between emotional schemas and symptoms aligned with theoretical expectations. In the regression analysis, while anxious attachment was found to predict all sub-dimensions of psychological symptoms, avoidant attachment was found to be related to only two sub-scales of the SCL-90. The results indicated that different emotional schemas predicted different psychological symptoms, and there were significant differences in symptoms depending on the emotional schemas. The results are discussed in the light of the relevant literature.