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The long-term stability of early maladaptive schemas

Riso, Lawrence P. ; Froman, Shoshanna ; Raouf, Mona ; Gable, Phillip ; Maddux, Rachel LU ; Turini-Santorelli, Noelle ; Penna, Susanne ; Blandino, Jamie ; Jacobs, C and Cherry, Melissa (2006) In Cognitive Therapy and Research 30(4). p.515-529
Abstract
J. E. Young’s (1995) Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) are assumed to be highly stable and enduring beliefs that are responsible for the persistence and poor treatment response of a variety of clinical problems. EMS are now the basis for a growing number of specialized “schema-focused” treatments. However, the critical assumption that they are stable constructs remains largely unexamined and open to question. This study examined the long-term stability of Young’s EMS in 55 depressed outpatients over a 2.5 to 5-year interval. EMS exhibited moderate to good levels of stability, even after controlling for severity of depression and neuroticism at both time points, and moderate levels of discriminant validity. A comparison of these results with... (More)
J. E. Young’s (1995) Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) are assumed to be highly stable and enduring beliefs that are responsible for the persistence and poor treatment response of a variety of clinical problems. EMS are now the basis for a growing number of specialized “schema-focused” treatments. However, the critical assumption that they are stable constructs remains largely unexamined and open to question. This study examined the long-term stability of Young’s EMS in 55 depressed outpatients over a 2.5 to 5-year interval. EMS exhibited moderate to good levels of stability, even after controlling for severity of depression and neuroticism at both time points, and moderate levels of discriminant validity. A comparison of these results with existing literature revealed that the stability and discriminant validity of EMS are quite similar to the stability and discriminant validity of personality disorder features. Additional work is needed to examine the stability of EMS across greater fluctuations in mood and in different clinical populations. Our findings for the stability of EMS may be generalizable to the more general notion of core beliefs. Future work needs to focus on further theoretical development and improved measurement of EMS. (Less)
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author
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
cognitive vulnerability, core beliefs, schema, depression, early maladaptive schema
in
Cognitive Therapy and Research
volume
30
issue
4
pages
515 - 529
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:33845462101
ISSN
0147-5916
DOI
10.1007/s10608-006-9015-z
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
3682109f-0934-4ba2-8d9e-49bf41a680f3 (old id 2862189)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:06:56
date last changed
2022-04-29 00:50:44
@article{3682109f-0934-4ba2-8d9e-49bf41a680f3,
  abstract     = {{J. E. Young’s (1995) Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) are assumed to be highly stable and enduring beliefs that are responsible for the persistence and poor treatment response of a variety of clinical problems. EMS are now the basis for a growing number of specialized “schema-focused” treatments. However, the critical assumption that they are stable constructs remains largely unexamined and open to question. This study examined the long-term stability of Young’s EMS in 55 depressed outpatients over a 2.5 to 5-year interval. EMS exhibited moderate to good levels of stability, even after controlling for severity of depression and neuroticism at both time points, and moderate levels of discriminant validity. A comparison of these results with existing literature revealed that the stability and discriminant validity of EMS are quite similar to the stability and discriminant validity of personality disorder features. Additional work is needed to examine the stability of EMS across greater fluctuations in mood and in different clinical populations. Our findings for the stability of EMS may be generalizable to the more general notion of core beliefs. Future work needs to focus on further theoretical development and improved measurement of EMS.}},
  author       = {{Riso, Lawrence P. and Froman, Shoshanna and Raouf, Mona and Gable, Phillip and Maddux, Rachel and Turini-Santorelli, Noelle and Penna, Susanne and Blandino, Jamie and Jacobs, C and Cherry, Melissa}},
  issn         = {{0147-5916}},
  keywords     = {{cognitive vulnerability; core beliefs; schema; depression; early maladaptive schema}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{515--529}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Cognitive Therapy and Research}},
  title        = {{The long-term stability of early maladaptive schemas}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9015-z}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10608-006-9015-z}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}