Emotional Schema

Two mediation models were tested through Structural equation modelling (SEM) in which the effects of childhood maltreatment and the mediator variables (emotional schemas and psychological inflexibility) on emotional distress were assessed. The sexual abuse subscale of the CTQ wasn’t predicted by the total scale and thus was eliminated from the model. The remaining subscales were used as manifest indicators for the childhood maltreatment latent variable in both models. Again in both models, there were two mediator variables: negative beliefs about emotion was modeled as a latent variable with LESS-II as the indicator; and psychological inflexibility/experiential avoidance was modeled as a latent variable with AAQ-II as the indicator. In the first model, DASS-21 total scale was used as an indicator for emotional distress latent variable, and in the second model depression, anxiety, and stress subscales of DASS-21 were used distinctively as indicators of the emotional distress latent variable.