Testing Three-Item Versions for Seven of Young's Maladaptive Schema

Abstract The Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) in either long-form (205-item) or short-form (75-item or 90-item) versions has demonstrated its clinical usefulness for assessing early maladaptive schemas. However, even a 75 or 90-item "short form", particularly when combined with other measures, can represent a lengthy "research-oriented" survey. This study's purpose was to test whether shorter three-item measures could reliably measure maladaptive schemas. Using two samples, 102 undergraduates in counseling and 962 undergraduates not in counseling, psychometric support was found for reliably measuring seven three-item schemas: unrelenting standards, subjugation, mistrust and abuse, abandonment, dependence, entitlement and social exclusion. Such a research-version survey of the YSQ could be more easily combined with additional measures, without risking respondent fatigue and missing data. (118 words) Key Words: maladaptive schemas; scale construction; attitude scaling ********** The Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) was designed to help assess early maladaptive schemas in individuals suffering from depression (Young, 1990; Young & Klosko, 1993). There are different long- and short-forms of the YSQ. The YSQ long-form was initially developed using clinical intuition, consisting of 205 items with 15 subscales (factors) representing the 15 schemas proposed by Young (1990). Generally supportive results have been found with the YSQ long-form, although the factor structure has been found to vary somewhat across samples (Oei & Baranoff, 2007). The 75-item YSQ short-form was constructed using a factor analysis (Schmidt, Joiner, Young & Telch, 1995) for the five highest loading items for each of the 15 schema. Using different undergraduate samples, the factor structure of the YSQ short-form has been found to also vary. For example Baranoff, Oei, Cho and Kwon (2006) found that a 13-factor solution was a better fit for their South Korean and Australian undergraduate samples, while Cui, Lin and Oei (2011), using Chinese undergraduates, found that a 14-factor solution was best. For the second 90-item "short form" version (18 schema, 5 items/schema) of the YSQ (Young, 2005), Hawke and Provencher (2012) confirmed 14 of 18 schema using a sample of 973 nonclinical participants. The YSQ in either long- or short-form versions has clearly demonstrated its usefulness for clinical practice (Hawke & Provencher, 2012). However, even a 75-item or 90 item "short form", particularly when combined with other measures, can represent a lengthy "research-oriented" survey, where respondent fatigue may become an issue (Edwards, 1997), and may result in a significant non-response bias, including missing data (Roth, 1994). Cooper and Archer (2002) advocated that counseling centers engage in more research activities. This study's purpose was to test whether shorter three-item measures could reliably measure maladaptive schemas. Method Sample and Procedure In the fall of 2011, spring 2012, fall, 2012, and fall, 2013 after reading Young and Klosko (1993), the first author asked undergraduates across his human resource classes to name the two most important life traps (schemas) they had faced thus far. A frequency count across these classes led to seven life traps being identified: unrelenting standards, subjugation, mistrust and abuse, abandonment, dependence, entitlement, and social exclusion. A fall 2013 meeting among key Counseling Services' clinicians at the University also indicated that these seven life traps (schemas) were well-represented in undergraduate clients the clinicians had and were currently seeing. Several of these schema (e.g., entitlement, dependence) were also recently identified among university staff as being descriptive of millennial generation college students (Much, Wagener, Breitkreutz & Hellenbrand, 2014). In the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014, data were collected for 102 undergraduates who registered for counseling services. …