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South Journal of Educational Psychology and Counseling
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The Relation between Quality of Life and Early Maladaptive
Schemas in Married Students at Qazvin Payam Noor University
Elham Rahmanshahi*1, Ahmad Usefynezhad2
1
(B.s Student of Psychology, Qazvin Payam Noor University,Khomini, Qazvin, Iran)
2
(Ph.D. Student of Counseling, Counseling, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Iran)
*Corresponding author: Elham Rahmanshahi
To cite this paper: Rahmanshahi, E., Usefynezhad, A. (2017). The Relation between Quality of Life and Early Maladaptive Schemas in Married Students at Qazvin Payam Noor University . South journal of Educational Psychology and Counseling, 4, 1, 46-52.
Abstract: The present study was done to investigate the relationship between quality of life and early maladaptive schemas in married students at Qazvin Payam Noor University. This study is an applied one in terms of objective, a descriptive one in terms of the method of collecting data, and of survey type. The statistical population consisted of all married students at Qazvin Payam Noor University that among them 100 male and female students were selected as the sample through random sampling method. To collect data, the Quality of Life Questionnaire and Early Maladaptive Schema Questionnaire were used. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (including correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis) were used. The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between quality of life and early maladaptive schemas.
Introduction
Family is one of the fundamental pillars and the most important social unit. Abnormalities of family and marital life are of risk factors of psychological traumas in children and adults, and threaten the family system that indeed is the underlying of healthy society. Therefore, identification of factors related with family and its atmosphere is of great importance. The quality of marital life is a factor which is considered very important in the family, and it means the individual's general subjective assessment from marital relation and the rate of satisfying personal and couple's needs, demands and dreams. Establishment of a satisfactory relation and having marital satisfaction constitute the pillars of family strength. In general, marital satisfaction is the prerequisite of a helpful, effective and satisfactory life, and includes individuals' cognitive assessment of their life conditions. Satisfaction of marital life quality is a process which is generated during the couples' life and loss or lack of satisfaction of marital life quality is one of the most important causes of referring the couples to family consultants and therapists (Fathi Ashtiani, Khodabakhsh and Etemadi, 2004).
A healthy family requires couple's adjustment and satisfaction from each other. Well-adjusted couples are those who have more agreement with each other, are satisfactory from their type and level of their relations, and also are satisfied with the kind and quality of spending their leisure time and plan about their time and financial problems as well (Shaker et al, 2010). Kol and Spanir (1976) described the quality of marital relation as the success and function of a marriage (Harper et al., 2000). Larson and Holman (1994) stated that the quality of marital relation is a dynamic concept because the nature and quality of relations among people change by passing of time which this issue provides the possibility of the identification of factors affecting the quality of a relation.
Satisfaction of the quality of marital life is one of the most important factors affecting on the family function (Biren et al., 2004) so that it is an important and complex aspect of a marital relation. In other words, one of the vital aspects of a marital system is the satisfaction that couples feel and experience in their relations (Tengiuch, Freeman, Taylor, and Malcarne, 2006). Satisfaction of marital life quality is a condition in which the husband and wife feel happy and satisfactory from each other most of the time (Sinha et al., 1990), and is considered as individuals' subjective assessment from their marital relations (Derudvai, 1997). The study of the factors affecting on satisfaction of the marital quality of life is considered as an important issue because the individual's satisfaction of the marital life is an important part of individual health (Berithwith et al., 2010).
Young, Kelasku and Vishar (2007) define the early maladaptive schemas as self damage emotional and cognitive patterns that have been formed at early stage of development and growth in the mind and have been repeated during the life. The early maladaptive schemas always show themselves during a relation and affect the activation of the relationship (Young and Brown, 1990) and can indirectly affect on the quality of marital life (Yusefi et al., 2010). Schemas are structures that are formed based on reality or experience and as mediators affect the individuals' behavioral responses. In the psychotherapy structure, schema is considered as an organizing factor that is essential to understand the person's life experience. Beck believes that most interpersonal problems that people experience are affected by their way of thinking that he calls them schemas (Beck, 2009). According to Young et al. (2005) schemas are like road maps that individuals follow to achieve their lives and relationships. They seem fairly constant and can sometimes be inflexible (Dattilio, 2010; Translated by Khajeh, Sajadian and Bahrami, 2012).
Ball and Sesru (2001) in a research studied the relationship between personality disorder, early maladaptive schemas and psychological problems and showed that there was a significant relationship between the intensity of personality disorder and maladaptive schemas. Mokhtari et al. (2012) found that treatment schema decrease maladaptive schemas and increase the quality of marital life.
Bidadian, Bahramizadeh and Poursharifi (2011) found that the aspects of the life quality were negatively correlated with maladaptive schemas. Yousefi et al., (2011) showed that mistrust/abuse, unrelenting standards and emotional inhibition could predict divorce significantly. Zolfaghari et al., (2008) found that there was a significant negative relationship between maladaptive schemas and the aspects of marital intimacy.
So with regard to the issues raised and that the early maladaptive schemas are related with marital life and family and affect the quality of marital life, the present study seeks to answer the question that "whether the quality of life relates to early maladaptive schemas in married students at Qazvin Payam Noor University or not? Methodology
The research method, based on data collection method, was descriptive and of correlational type.
Statistical population, sampling method and sample size: The statistical population of this study was the married university students. In the present study, the random sampling method was used and thereby 100 male and female married students among the students of Qazvin Payam Noor University participated in the study.
Data collection tools
Young's Schema Questionnaire
Young and Long (1998) Schema Questionnaire-Short Form was used to measure early maladaptive schemas for exclusion and disconnection. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for subscales of the non-clinical population were obtained 0.5-0.82. In Iran, this questionnaire was translated and developed by Ahi, Mohammadifar and Besharat (2007) and its internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha was reported to be 0.97 for females and 0.98 for males. To test early maladaptive schemas for exclusion and disconnection area, the 25 items of the Young's early maladaptive schema questionnaire was used. Cronbach's alpha for this study was obtained equal to 0.79. Quality of Life Questionnaire
The 36-item form of the questionnaire was developed by words by Varo Sherbon in 1992 in the United States, and its reliability and validity have been studied in different patient groups. The validity and reliability of this questionnaire have been confirmed in Iranian population (Montazeri et al., 2005; Asghari and Faghehi, 2003) and internal consistency coefficients of its subscales were reported to be 0.70 to 0.85 and the coefficients through test-retest with a week of interval were 0.43-0.79. Also, this questionnaire can differentiate the healthy individuals from patients at all indicators (Asghari and Faghehi, 2003). Concepts that are measured by this questionnaire are not related to age, group, and a certain illness. The purpose of designing this questionnaire has been the assessment of the health both physically and mentally, which is performed by combining the scores of eight fields constituting the health. The questionnaire consists of 36 items that evaluates eight different domains of health: 1) General health, 2) physical functioning, 3) Role limitations due to physical health, 4) Role limitations due to emotional problems, 5) Physical pain, 6) Social functioning, 7) Energy/fatigue, and 8) Emotional well-being.
Data analysis method
After collecting the data, they were analyzed using descriptive and inferential methods that in the descriptive statistics the mean and standard deviation were obtained and in the inferential statistics the data were analyzed using multiple regression method.
Results
In this study, the quality of life and its relation to the early maladaptive schemas has been measured, and the descriptive results on the research variables are given in table 1.
Table 1. The descriptive results on the research variables
Statistical indicators No. Mean Standard deviation Minimum Maximum
Quality of life 100 5.63 0.99 4.00 9.00
Early maladaptive schema 100 47.10 20.19 4.00 101.00
According to the data in the above table, for quality of life the mean and standard deviation are 5.63 and 0.99, respectively; and for the early maladaptive schemas the mean and standard deviation are 47.10 and 20.19, respectively.
Statistical analysis of research hypothesis
In this study, the hypothesis has been designed in accordance with the research subject, which to test it various statistical tests such as Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were used that are discussed in the following. The hypothesis: There is a relationship between quality of life and the early maladaptive schemas in married students at Qazvin Payam Noor University.
To test this hypothesis, Pearson correlation coefficient was used that the data has been presented in the table below.
Table 2. Pearson correlation test for the hypothesis
Statistical indicators Variables 1 3
Quality of life -
Early maladaptive schema **-0.31 -
significant negative relationship between quality of life and early maladaptive schemas.
To predict the early maladaptive schemas based on the quality of life, multiple regression method was used which is presented below. Also, the null hypothesis and its reverse are as follows:
Table 3. Results of regression for the impact of the quality of life on early maladaptive schemas
Model Sum of squares df Mean of squares F R R2 R2adj Sig
Regression 1411.32 2 705.66 16.16 0.47 0.22 0.20 0.001
Resudual 4934.22 97 43.66
Total 12661.92 99
As seen in Table, the significance value is less than 0.01, which indicates the significance of the regression model, i.e., at least one of the predictor variables has a significant effect. In this study, the value of R2 is equal to 0.22 which means that the quality of life can predict 22% of the early maladaptive schemas, and the remainder percentage is related to prediction error.
Discussion and conclusion
The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between couples' early maladaptive schemas and quality of marital life. The results of the analysis (in the fourth chapter) show that there is a significant relationship between the early maladaptive schemas and the quality of marital life; and we can predict the early maladaptive schemas based on the quality of life. The results of the present study are congruent with findings by Mohammadi et al., (2011); Brian et al., (2007); Young et al., (2003).
Young et al. (2003) showed that people who have maladaptive schemas quality are faced with the problem of the quality of life and do not experience well-being in its true meaning; which the result of it is consistent with that of the present study that indicates the relationship between quality of life and the early maladaptive schemas. Also, Hurley and Barker (2014) in a study similar to the present study concluded the same result; their research showed that the early maladaptive schemas cause a decrease in psychological health in adulthood, which is in agreement with the result of the present study.
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