Early Maladaptive Schemas, Emotion Regulation Profiles, and Resistance to Interference in Adolescents With Juvenile...

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and pediatric migraine (PM) may involve emotional and executive difficulties. We compared early maladaptive schemas, emotion-regulation profiles, psychiatric symptoms, and resistance to interference among adolescents with JME or PM and healthy controls.

This single-center, cross-sectional case-control study enrolled 80 adolescents: 30 with JME, 30 with PM, and 20 controls. Participants completed the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form 3, Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, and Stroop Color Word Test-TBAG Form (SCWT); current psychopathology was assessed with the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children. Primary multivariate models adjusted for age and sex, with psychopathology added in sensitivity analyses. Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate control was applied.

The mean age was 15.1 ± 1.4 years, and 62.5% were female. In the age- and sex-adjusted primary model, the diagnostic-group effect across Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form 3, Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, and the conventional SCWT time-difference score was not significant (Wilks λ = 0.839, F [8,144] = 1.65, P = 0.116). A refined SCWT model showed a multivariate group effect (Pillai trace = 0.130, F [4,150] = 2.60, P = 0.038); the time ratio and component-corrected score differed by group after false discovery rate control (q = 0.017 for both), with both clinical groups showing greater interference than controls and no JME-PM difference. These univariate effects persisted after additional adjustment for current psychopathology. Current psychopathology was associated with internal-dysfunctional emotion regulation (F [1,74] = 8.47, P = 0.0048, q = 0.019).

Internal-dysfunctional emotion regulation was associated with current psychopathology across groups, supporting assessment of maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies among adolescents in child neurology settings. Refined SCWT indices showed exploratory diagnosis-related signals requiring replication in larger longitudinal samples.