Investigation of the relationship between early maladaptive schemas, temperament and eating attitude in adults

Current research on eating attitude has focused primarily on female perspective (Kapoor et al. in J Educ Health Promot 11(80):1-7, 2022; Piko et al. in J Prev Med Hyg. 63(1):83-89, 2022). To extend cross-gender approaches, this study aimed to examine the relationship between early maladaptive schemas, temperament, and eating attitude and to see whether these three concepts differ between men and women.

The sample group consists of a total of 308 participants, 206 (66.9%) women and 102 (33.1%) men, living in Bursa and participating in the research voluntarily. In the study, Sociodemographic Data Form was used to obtain personal information of the participants, Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form 3 was used to evaluate early maladaptive schemas, Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San-Diego Autoquestionnaire was used to evaluate temperament characteristics and Eating Attitude Test was used to evaluate eating attitudes.

As a result of the study, a moderate and positive relationship was found between the Defectiveness, Emotional Inhibition, Enmeshment/Dependence, Failure, Abandonment, Vulnerability to Harm or Illness, Negativity/Pessimism schemas and eating attitude. Among these schemas, Defectiveness was found to be the best predictor of deterioration in eating attitude. A weak and positive relationship was found between the scores obtained from the Eating Attitude Test and Cyclothymic and Irritable temperaments, and a moderate positive relationship with Anxious temperament. Among these temperaments, Anxious temperament was found to be the best predictor of deterioration in eating attitude.

When the results were examined, a relationship was observed between early maladaptive schemas and temperament types, and this relationship was examined in detail. The results obtained at the end of the study were discussed and suggestions were made for future studies.