The Mediating Role of Early Maladaptive Schemas in the Relationship between Temperament and Depressive Symptoms

Objectives: Personality traits and early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) play an active role in the emergence, maintenance, and treatment of depressive mood. Studies draw attention to the close relationship between temperament and character traits, EMSs, and depression. The first aim of this study is to examine the relationships between temperament, character traits, and EMSs. Secondly, we were interested to observe whether or not these variables explained depressive symptoms. Lastly, based on the previous findings and the idea that the development of EMSs is affected by temperament traits, the mediating role of EMSs in the relationship between harm avoidance and depressive symptoms was investigated. Method: Personal Information Form, Temperament and Character Inventory, Young Schema Questionnaire Short Form-3, and Beck Depression Inventory were applied to 205 undergraduate students (68% women). Results: Results showed the significant correlations among harm avoidance temperament trait, self-directedness, cooperativeness character traits, and with most of the EMSs. The disconnection schema domain, harm avoidance, and self-directedness personality traits predicted depressive symptoms. Moreover, controlling the gender effect, disconnection and unrelenting standards mediated the relationship between harm avoidance and depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The findings supported the idea suggested by the schema theory that the temperament traits affect EMSs. We believe that these findings can support studies towards depression-prevention as well as the treatment of depressive individuals. Even without interfering with temperament characteristics of individuals, depressive symptoms might be reduced by working only with some of the EMSs.