Dimensionality and Measurement Invariance of a Brief Form of the Young Schema Questionnaire for Adolescents

Abstract

The current work aims to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Brief form of the Young Schema Questionnaire for Adolescents (B-YSQ-A), so that Early Maladaptive Schemas can be accurately measured in younger populations. Early Maladaptive Schemas are self-defeating core themes underlying maladaptive cognition, affect, and behavior. A community sample of 877 adolescents, aged 12 to 18 years old, filled out self-report instruments on maladaptive schemas, anger management, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms.The items composing the B-YSQ-A were selected based on statistical and content analyses criteria. Its internal structure, reliability, age-and gender-based invariance, and between-gender mean differences were examined, as well as its relationship with external variables. Results indicated a satisfying fit for the 18 original schema factors through confirmatory factor analysis.These schemas also showed adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability, with the exception of the entitlement/grandiosity schema. The B-YSQ-A was found to be age and gender invariant. Concerning gender differences, boys scored higher on the entitlement/grandiosity, insufficient self-control/discipline, approval/recognition seeking, unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness and punitiveness schemas, whereas girls scored higher on the abandonment/instability, mistrust/abuse, and self-sacrifice schemas. Furthermore, evidence was found for construct validity in relation to measures of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology and of anger expression. Findings offer support for the use of the B-YSQ-A with adolescents, both for research and intervention purposes.

Early Maladaptive Schemas as Predictors Symptomatology among Victims and Non-Victims of Dating Violence

“…The instrument presented 433Contextos Clínicos, v. 13, n. 2, mai./ago. 2020 good internal consistency in the validation study for Brazilian adolescents(Patias et al, 2016): depression (0.90), anxiety (0.83) and stress (0.86), and in the current study, Cronbach's alphas in the subscales were: depression (0.88), anxiety (0.81), and stress (0.86).Brief Form of the Young Schema Questionnaire for Adolescents (B-YSQ-A, PortugueseVersion ofSantos, Vagos, & Rijo, 2018, validated for Brazil by Borges, Vagos, Dell'Aglio, & Rijo, 2020, which evaluates the 18 maladaptive initial schemas, based on the model proposed by Schema-Focused Therapy, using 52 items presented in a non-consecutive way which are answered based on a six-point Likert scale. The mean responses to the items assessing each of the 18 EMSs are taken as an indicator of the salience of each of these EMSs themselves.…”

“…Regarding the Portuguese translation, most of the items were translated directly, although five items were adapted to better understand Brazilian adolescents. The Alpha for the violence suffered was 0.87 and the violence perpetrated was 0.88. proposed factors (Santos et al, 2018). In this study, the internal consistency of 14 out of 18 EMSs showed between 0.60 and 0.83, revealing an acceptable trustworthiness.…”

Entropy Fit Indices: New Fit Measures for Assessing the Structure and Dimensionality of Multiple Latent Variables

“…Fit indices derived from factor analysis models have been proposed as tools to estimate latent dimensions in multivariate data (Santos, Vagos, & Rijo, 2018;Schermelleh-Engel, Moosbrugger, & Müller, 2003;Ventimiglia & MacDonald, 2012). These fit indices include (among others): CFI (Bentler, 1990), TLI (Tucker & Lewis, 1973), RMSEA (Steiger, 1980), and SRMR (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1981).…”

Esquemas iniciais desadaptativos como mediadores entre os maus tratos na infância e a violência no namoro na adolescência

“…The Portuguese-Brazilian version of the Schema Questionnaire for Adolescents (QEA) 36,37 : which evaluates the 18 early maladaptive schemas, using 52 items, presented non-consecutively, on a six-point Likert scale (1 = It has nothing to do with what happens to me to 6 = That's exactly what happens to me). The total score of each EMS is calculated by the mean of the sum of the items underlying the schema in question.…”