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Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice (2008), 81, 105118 q 2008 The British Psychological Society

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Exploring the relationships among early maladaptive schemas, psychological mindedness and self-reported college adjustment
John J. Cecero1*, Mark Beitel2 and Tracy Prout1
1 2

Fordham University, New York, USA Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Objectives. The primary aim of this research was to study the statistical effects of psychological mindedness (PM) upon the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMS) and self-reported college adjustment. Design. A cross-sectional design was employed to assess correlations among study variables and to assess the role of PM as moderator or mediator in the relationship between EMS and adjustment. Methods. Into this study, 264 undergraduate students were recruited in partial fullment of research requirements in introductory psychology class. Participants completed the Young Schema Questionnaire, the Psychological Mindedness Scale and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. Results. At the level of bivariate correlations, EMS were inversely associated with college adjustment and with PM, and PM was positively associated with adjustment. In a multiple regression equation with PM and EMS entered separately and then as an interaction term as predictors of adjustment, PM was not a signicant moderator. However, in a path analysis, the indirect effect of EMS on adjustment through PM was signicant, suggesting that PM is a signicant mediator. Conclusions. These ndings suggest that the assessment of EMS and PM may enhance an understanding of problems with college adjustment and that interventions to reduce the negative effects of EMS may indeed benet from efforts to improve PM and its correlates.

Early maladaptive schemas (EMS) have been dened as broad, pervasive themes : : : regarding oneself and ones relationships with others, which are developed during childhood or adolescence, elaborated throughout ones lifetime, and dysfunctional to a signicant degree (Young, Klosko, & Weishar, 2003, p. 7). Empirical studies have supported a pattern of positive relationships between EMS and psychiatric

* Correspondence should be addressed to Dr John J. Cecero, Department of Psychology, Fordham University, 113 West 60th Street, New York, NY 10023, USA (e-mail: jjcsj@aol.com).
DOI:10.1348/147608307X216177

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106 John J Cecero et al.

disorders (Carine, 1997; Harris & Curtin, 2002), substance abuse (Ball & Cecero, 2001; Brotchie, Meyer, Copello, Kidney, & Waller, 2004), obesity (Anderson, Rieger, & Caterson, 2006) and other eating disorders (Leung & Price, 2007), and difculties with mood and college adjustment (DAndrea, 2004). Young et al. have identied 18 EMS and categorized them into ve broad domains, with each domain originating in the frustration of a core developmental need. The Disconnection/Rejection domain comprises ve EMS that originate in the frustration of basic needs for safety, security and emotional nurturance. These ve EMS, theoretically the most associated with emotional distress and problematic interpersonal relationships (Young et al., 2003), include Abandonment, which is the persistent fear and expectation that signicant others will inevitably leave one, often in preference to others who are more attractive; Mistrust/Abuse, which is the expectation that signicant others will be abusive, humiliating, or manipulative; Emotional Deprivation, which is the expectation that signicant others will never meet ones needs for emotional nurturance, empathy, or guidance; Defectiveness/Shame, which is a persistent sense of being defective, inferior or unlovable and Social Isolation/Alienation, which is the feeling of isolation from the rest of the world. As these EMS are theoretically and empirically most associated with mental health problems, including insecure attachment styles (Cecero, Nelson, & Gillie, 2004) and heightened psychiatric distress (Welburn, Coristine, Dagg, Pontefract, & Jordan, 2002) in both clinical and nonclinical samples, we anticipated that they would be most associated in our sample with poor college adjustment. We selected college adjustment as it arguably represents a more ecologically valid measure of psychological well-being that is specic to college students. Baker and Siryk (1984) conceptualized college adjustment as a multidimensional construct emphasizing the variety of demands placed on students. These include academic, social, personal and emotional adjustment, as well as adjustment to the institution itself. For the more than 15.9 million college students in the United States (U.S. Census, 2004), adjustment to college is an important variable in retention, academic performance and future achievement. Using their Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire (SACQ; 1989), Baker and Siryk have demonstrated that among US students in their rst year of university study, Academic Adjustment is signicantly correlated with GPA, r250 :40, p , :01, and poor personal/emotional adjustment is predictive of being seen for psychological counselling, r250 :26, p , :01. In a more recent study with 107 rst-year college students, Taylor and Pastor (2005) have reported a pattern of negative point biserial correlations between the subscales of the Student Adjustment to College Questionnaire (SACQ; Baker & Siryk, 1989) with attrition (Social Adjustment, r 2:38; personal/emotional adjustment, r 2:16; institutional attachment, r 2:37), where the non-dropouts have higher values on the adjustment predictors than the dropouts. In a European sample of rst-year university students, Beyers & Goosens (2002) also demonstrated evidence for the predictive validity of the SACQ. In their study with 368 students in psychology in Belgium, these researchers found that overall adjustment to college was associated with higher levels of academic motivation, r :42, p , :001, lower levels of loneliness, r 2:55, p , :001, fewer depressive symptoms, r 2:68, p , :001 and a higher level of general adjustment, r :86, p , :001. While there is a burgeoning empirical literature to support an inverse relationship between EMS and adjustment among college students, there remains a clinical need to identify constructs that might potentially attenuate the magnitude of these

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relationships. One such construct worthy of attention is psychological mindedness (PM). Trudeau and Reich (1995) reported that PM was associated with general psychological well-being among college students, such that as PM increased in their sample, participants level of subjective well-being likewise increased, and negative selfconsciousness decreased. In contrast to the negative associations with EMS, PM has been described as a healthy personality construct (Beitel & Cecero, 2003) that involves an interest in and an awareness of mental life in self and others (Beitel, Blauvelt, Barry, & Cecero, 2005). PM was initially employed by psychodynamic therapists to describe the capacity of patients to think in psychological terms, that is to make psychological attributions for behaviour. More recent formulations of PM emphasize its strong cognitive component (Beitel, Ferrer, & Cecero, 2004) and liken it to constructs such as metacognition (Grant, 2001) and mentalization (Allen & Fonagy, 2006). Based upon a synthesis of previous work in the area (Appelbaum, 1973; Farber, 1985), Conte, Ratto, and Karasu (1996) dene PM as an attribute of an individual that presupposes a degree of access to ones feelings, a willingness to try to understand oneself and others, a belief in the benets of discussing ones problems, an interest in the meaning and motivation of ones own and others thoughts, feelings, behavior, and a capacity for change (p. 258). To assess these dimensions of human experience, Conte et al. (1996) designed a reliable and valid self-report measure of PM. PM has also been assessed through clinical interview (Coltart, 1988), projective test data (Wolitzky & Reuben, 1974) and by means of a standardized video stimulus paradigm (McCallum & Piper, 1990). However, the Conte et al.s denition and assessment methods are followed in this paper as they are straightforward, easy to work with, and amenable for use in a variety of traditions, including those with interests in cognitivebehavioural therapy, as well as social cognition more generally. PM has been empirically associated with a number of constructs that are on the opposite (healthy) side of the correlates of EMS. More specically, among college undergraduates, while PM has been associated with a secure attachment to peers (Beitel & Cecero, 2003), EMS have been associated with insecure attachments styles: Abandonment with the preoccupied style; Social Isolation and Emotional Deprivation with the dismissing attachment style and Mistrust/Abuse with the fearful style of interpersonal relating (Cecero et al., 2004). These ndings were replicated with another undergraduate sample in a more recent study that examined the relationship between EMS and maternal and paternal attachments (Blissett, Walsh, Harris, Jones, Leung, & Meyer, 2006). These authors also found that the Disconnection/Rejection EMS were most predictive of problematic attachment styles. In a study of EMS and adult attachment in a clinical sample of individuals seeking mental health services (Mason, Platts, & Tyson, 2005), the authors found that Abandonment, Emotional Deprivation and Self-Sacrice predicted the preoccupied style; and Mistrust/Abuse, Social Isolation, Defectiveness/Shame and Emotional Inhibition predicted the fearful style. Beitel et al. (2004) have also demonstrated that PM is associated with a exible cognitive style that is characterized by ambiguity tolerance and an internal locus of control. By their very characterization as rigid, inexible and highly resistant to change (Young et al., 2003), EMS may be differentiated from the more exible cognitive style associated with PM. Whereas EMS are the objects of cognitive therapeutic intervention, PM is considered a therapeutic resource (McCallum, Piper, & Joyce, 1992). Most recently, PM has been associated with increased mindfulness and reduced personal distress (Beitel, Ferrer, & Cecero, 2005) once again in a sample of college

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undergraduates. Mindfulness has been described as an emotional awareness or attention to ones own emotional states (Ryan & Brown, 2003), and in their study, Beitel, Ferrer, and Cecero conjecture that the heightened emotional awareness associated with PM may serve as a protective factor against personal distress. EMS, on the other hand, while also associated with a heightened awareness of emotional states, are by denition associated positively with personal distress (Young et al., 2003). In addition to a factor analysis of the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short form (YSQ-S; Young, 1998) that was used in the present study, Welburn et al. (2002) compared scores on the YSQ-S to psychiatric symptomatology as measured by scores on the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1993) in a sample of psychiatric day treatment patients. These researchers reported a pattern of positive relationships between EMS and psychiatric distress, and they noted especially that Abandonment was a salient predictor of depression and anxiety, while Mistrust/Abuse was the best predictor of paranoia. The central aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among EMS, PM and college adjustment (DAndrea, 2004). More specically, we expected that those participants who endorsed the presence of EMS and who were at the same time more psychologically minded would experience less severe maladjustment, and conversely that those with EMS who were less psychologically minded would acknowledge a greater degree of emotional distress and maladjustment.

Methods
Participants In this study, 264 undergraduate students participated as part of a research requirement in an introductory psychology class. Out of these, 186 (70%) were females and 78 (30%) males. The age range for the participants was 1822 years. Out of these, 40% were freshman, 44% were sophomores, 10% were juniors and 6% were seniors. The ethnic breakdown of the participants was as follows: 72.3% were Caucasian, 10.7% Latino, 6.1% Asian American, 1.9% African-American and 9% described themselves as Other. In exchange for their participation, volunteers received course credit. Students who chose not to participate were able to write a paper instead. Informed consent was obtained and participants were debriefed verbally and in writing at the conclusion of the study. The instruments were presented in a fully counterbalanced order. Instruments The Young Schema Questionnaire-Short form (YSQ-S; Young, 1998) is a 75-item selfreport questionnaire designed to measure 15 EMS. The items are grouped into 15 subscales, each consisting of 5 items intended to measure a specic EMS. For the purposes of this study, the authors focused on the ve subscales within the Disconnection/Rejection domain. Individuals were asked to respond to statements using a six-point Likert scale ranging from completely untrue of me to describes me perfectly. For example, one item that describes the Abandonment schema within this Disconnection/Rejection domain is I nd myself clinging to people Im close to because Im afraid theyll leave me. Higher scores reect the respondents greater endorsement of a particular EMS. Preliminary evidence for the reliability of the items was rst provided by Schmidt, Joiner, Young, and Telch (1995) who evaluated the original 205-item Young Schema

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Questionnaire-Long version (YSQ-L; Young & Brown, 1994) and reported alpha values ranging from .86 to .96. Schmidt et al. found that the instrument had a factor structure that reected Youngs clinical observations. In response to this study, Young (1998) produced a shorter, 75-item version of the questionnaire, the YSQ-S, with 15 scales, with each scale consisting of 5 items from the original scale, namely the 5 items that loaded most strongly on each factor in the Schmidt et al. analysis. In a sample of bulimic and comparison women, Waller, Meyer, and Ohanian (2001) evaluated the psychometric properties of both the YSQ-L and the YSQ-S, and these authors reported adequate reliability for the scales, with alpha levels greater than .80 for each group on each of the scales. Stopa, Thorne, Waters, and Preston (2001) compared the validity of the YSQ-L and YSQ-S as predictors of psychopathology among psychiatric out-patients, and they found that the two versions of the YSQ have similar levels of internal consistency, parallel forms reliability and concurrent validity. Welburn et al. (2002) examined the psychometric properties of the YSQ-S in a psychiatric out-patient sample, and their factor analysis supported the 15 EMS subscales proposed by Young. These authors also found a high internal consistency for the 15 subscales. With a multi-site sample of psychiatric patients and non-patients, a conrmatory factor analysis of the YSQ-S supported all 15 EMS factors and four higher-order factor domains, including Disconnection/Rejection, Impaired Autonomy, Exaggerated Standards and Impaired Limits (Hoffart et al., 2005). In a non-clinical, mainly undergraduate sample, Lachenal-Chevallet, Mauchand, Cottraux, Bouvard, and Martin (2006) examined the psychometric properties of the French version of the YSQ-S, and their factor analysis supported 14 interpretable factors, each with moderate to good internal consistency, ranging from .64 to .87. Thirteen of these factors corresponded exactly to those hypothesized by Young, all except Entitlement and Impaired Limits. A second factor analysis of the YSQ-S with undergraduate students replicated these ndings in Korea and Australia (Baranoff, Oei, Ho Cho, & Kwon, 2006) and revealed a 13-factor solution with a high level of internal consistency for each factor. The Psychological Mindedness Scale (PMS; Conte et al., 1996) is a 45-item selfreport measure designed to assess PM. Individuals were asked to rate statements on a four-point Likert scale that ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Higher scores indicate a greater level of PM, as items are summed to create a total score. The PM Scale has items that tap (1) Belief in the Benets of Discussing Ones Problems, for example Talking about your worries to another person helps you to understand your problems better; (2) Access to Feelings, for example Usually, if I feel an emotion, I can identify it; (3) Willingness to Discuss Problems with Others, for example There are some things in my life that I would not discuss with anyone (R); (4) Interest in Meaning and Motivation : : : of Behavior, for example I really enjoy trying to gure other people out and (5) Openness to Change, for example I am willing to change old habits to try a new way of doing things. See Shill and Lumley (2002) for the complete item set and scoring instructions. The PM Scale has demonstrated good temporal stability (r 20 :92) and internal consistency (a :87). While factor analytic studies (Conte et al., 1996; Shill & Lumley, 2002) have revealed a number of factors for the scale, their reliability estimates have been moderate to low (Beitel et al., 2004). Therefore, more research into the factor structure is required before any subscales should be widely adopted (Beitel, Hopper, Cecero, Zhou, & Barry, 2007).

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110 John J Cecero et al.

The Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ; Baker & Siryk, 1989) is a 67-item self-report measure designed to assess four aspects of students adjustment to college: Academic Adjustment (24 items; alpha :84) assesses the students ability to manage the educational demands of college; Social Adjustment (20 items; alpha :84) measures the students ability to deal with interpersonal experiences in college; Personal-Emotional Adjustment (15 items; alpha :81) measures the students degree of general psychological distress and Institutional Attachment (15 items; alpha :80) assesses the degree of commitment the student feels towards the university. Some of the items are included in more than one subscale, for example I am satised with the number and variety of courses available at college appears on both the Academic Adjustment and Institutional Attachment subscales. The SACQ also yields a full-scale score (67 items; alpha :92) representative of the overall adjustment to college. Responses are given on a nine-point Likert scale, ranging from not at all true of me to very much true of me. Virtually all published studies of the SACQ involve students in North American colleges and universities, supporting its use with this study sample. Research conducted on the concurrent and predictive validity of the SACQ has demonstrated its robustness as a measure of college adjustment. Overall scores on the SACQ were inversely correlated with the College Maladjustment scale (Mt) on the MMPI-2 (r 2:67, p , :001; Merker & Smith, 2001). From their review of studies that used the SACQ, Sue, Bernardin, and Bernardin (1992) reported that subscale scores on Personal-Emotional Adjustment were negatively associated with seeking psychological services on campus (r values ranging from 2 .23 to 2 .34, all p values , :01), and subscale scores on Institutional Attachment were inversely associated with college attrition (r values ranging from 2 .27 to 2 .41, all p values , :01). These authors also reported coefcient alpha values for the 67-item version of the SACQ ranging from .81 to .90 for the Academic Adjustment subscale, from .83 to .91 for the Social Adjustment subscale, from .77 to .86 for the Personal-Emotional Adjustment subscale, from .85 to .91 for the Institutional Attachment subscale and from .92 to .95 for Full Scale College Adjustment. These estimates conrm previous psychometric ndings that support the internal consistency of this instrument across several independent studies (Baker & Siryk, 1989).

Results
Descriptive statistics for the study variables are presented in Table 1. Means and standard deviations for each scale (YSQ-S, PM, SACQ) were in line with ndings from previous research (Baker & Siryk, 1984; Conte et al., 1996; Young, 1998). The coefcient alpha for each scale exceeded Nunallys (1978) recommended cutoff of .70, demonstrating adequate to good internal consistency for each scale. Therefore, it appears that each scale functioned as expected. Demographic variables were examined to determine the extent of their inuence on the study variables. A series of independent samples t tests failed to reveal any statistically signicant sex differences on PM, EMS and Adjustment variables. To reduce the increased risk of Type 1 error associated with running multiple tests, a Bonferonni correction was invoked and, consequently, the more stringent alpha level of .001 was used. The only variable that was close was Academic Adjustment (t 2:79, p , :01), with women reporting higher Academic Adjustment (M 139:45, SD 28:22) than men (M 129:24, SD 27:00), a trend that has

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Early maladaptive schemas and adjustment Table 1. Scale descriptive statistics Scale M Early maladaptive schemas 10.50 11.90 7.90 10.60 9.20 50.10 Psychological mindedness 135.30 Adjustment to college 136.40 121.00 79.10 99.80 436.30 SD

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Abandonment Mistrust/abuse Defectiveness/shame Social isolation Emotional deprivation EMS total score PM Scale total score Academic adjustment Social adjustment Personal/emotional adjustment Attachment to the institution Adjustment to college total score

5.10 5.30 3.84 7.80 4.50 18.30 12.30 28.20 27.00 18.20 20.20 75.80

.86 .85 .84 .82 .79 .96 .86 .88 .87 .78 .77 .93

been observed elsewhere (Hutz, Martin, & Beitel, 2007). Pearson ProductMoment correlations failed to reveal signicant relationships among study variables and participant age (with the exception of Social Adjustment, which was negatively associated with age, r 2:13, p , :05). This nding should be interpreted cautiously, however, given that the sample was of college age. There were too few non-White participants in this sample to test the effects of ethnicity on the study variables. Pearson ProductMoment correlations were employed to examine relationships among study variables. All of the EMS and college adjustment domains were signicantly, inversely correlated (see Table 2).
Table 2. Correlations among EMS and adjustment domains EMS Abandonment Mistrust/abuse Defectiveness/shame Social isolation Emotional deprivation *p , :01. Academic 2 .28* 2 .33* 2 .29* 2 .23* 2 .21* Social 2 .27* 2 .32* 2 .28* 2 .41* 2 .27* Personal/emotional 2 .45* 2 .45* 2 .34* 2 .31* 2 .29* Attachment to institution 2 .25* 2 .33* 2 .28* 2 .36* 2 .24*

PM was signicantly and negatively associated with EMS (see Table 3). In contrast, PM was signicantly and positively associated with each domain of college adjustment (see Table 4). Following Aiken and West (1991), the moderating role of PM was tested with a simultaneous-entry multiple regression equation with interaction terms (see Table 5). After centring, the total EMS score, PM and the interaction term were entered simultaneously. The interaction term was not signicant, suggesting that PM does not moderate the relationship between EMS and Adjustment.

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112 John J Cecero et al. Table 3. Correlations among PM and EMS Variable 1. PM 2. Abandonment 3. Mistrust/abuse 4. Defectiveness/shame 5. Social isolation 6. Emotional deprivation 7. EMS total *p , :05; **p , :01. Table 4. Correlations among PM and adjustment domains Variable 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. PM Academic Personal Social Attachment Adjustment total 1 .22* .28* .19* .25* .29* 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 .11 2 .27* 2 .36* 2 .24* 2 .29* 2 .32* 2 3 4 5 6 7

.67* .54* .41** .45* .80**

.58* .48* .41* .82**

.59* .48* .80**

.46* .75*

.71*

.42* .55* .54* .80**

.41* .85** .84**

.45* .71*

.88**

*p , :05; **p , :01. Table 5. PM as a moderator of the relationship between EMS and adjustment Variable EMS PM EMS * PM b 2 .439 .154 .009 SE .24 .35 .02 t 7.60** 2.70*** 0.17

Note. Simultaneous-entry multiple regression, with IVs centred for the analysis. Overall equation, R 2 :26, p , :001. **p , :001; ***p , :01.

The mediating role of PM (on the relationship between EMS and Adjustment) was examined through path analysis (LISREL 8.0). The EMS and Adjustment total scores were used (rather than the individual subscales) in the analysis for parsimony. A path analytic strategy was invoked for efciency, i.e. to test all of the paths at once. The direct effect of EMS on Adjustment was signicant and negative, as was the direct effect of EMS on PM (see Figure 1). Strongly suggesting evidence of mediation, the indirect effect of EMS on Adjustment (through PM) was signicant by the Sobel Test of mediation (2 2.41, p , :01).

Discussion
The primary aim of this research was to study the statistical effects of psychological mindedness (PM) upon the relationship between early maladaptive schemas (EMS) and

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Figure 1. Direct and indirect effects of EMS upon adjustment.

self-reported college adjustment. Consistent with study hypotheses and previous research with an undergraduate sample (DAndrea, 2004), these EMS were associated with poor self-reported college adjustment in all four adjustment-to-college domains. As hypothesized, PM was inversely associated with each of the EMS, although the relationship of PM and Abandonment did not reach signicance. This latter nding is consistent with previous research that identied the heightened social cognition related to PM as positively associated with borderline personality disorder (Westen, Lohr, Silk, Gold, & Kerber, 1990), which may be understood as an extreme expression of the Abandonment schema. Again as hypothesized and consistent with previous ndings (Trudeau & Reich, 1995), PM was positively associated with each of the domains of college adjustment, thereby supporting its selection in this study as a potential moderator or mediator in the relationship between EMS and college adjustment. The rst way in which we suspected that PM might relate to EMS and college adjustment was interactively, whereby at higher levels of PM the relationship between EMS and college adjustment would be weaker than at lower levels. The results, however, did not support this moderator hypothesis. The second way that we hypothesized PM might inuence the relationship between EMS and college adjustment was as a mediator, whereby the construct of PM might in part account for the relationship between EMS and adjustment. Study ndings support this hypothesis, as evidenced by the signicant indirect paths of EMS on college adjustment through PM. Based on these ndings, it appears that psychological mindedness may in part explain the inverse relationship between EMS (specically Mistrust/Abuse and Social Isolation/Alienation) and college adjustment. Alvarez, Farber, and Schonbar (1998) found that, contrary to conjectures that PM may be developmentally associated with inconsistent parenting (McCallum & Piper, 1997), where high PM individuals are trying to make sense out of an environment that lacks reliable contingencies, it was instead negatively correlated among college students with perceptions of early maternal rejection. This association of PM and good enough parenting may account for its inverse relationships with EMS and positive correlations with secure attachment, exible cognitive style, heightened mindfulness and adjustment to college. These results not only support Young et al.s (2003) assertion that EMS contribute to poor adjustment, but they also potentially elucidate how EMS may exert this inuence, namely through PM. Moreover, it may be that the correlates of PM secure attachment,

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exible cognitive style and heightened mindfulness are also potential mediators and/or moderators, suggesting their inclusion, along with PM, in future EMS research.

Limitations Several features of this particular study limit our understanding of the ndings in terms of their internal and external validity. First of all, the study data were generated by selfreport, precluding corroboration by an objective observer and therefore may contain a degree of bias. A methodologically related point is that the mono-method of assessment might have inated the correlations among study variables to some extent. The second design feature of interest is that the study is correlational rather than experimental. While correlational designs have certain advantages, internal validity concerns are well established. For example, it may be that there are alternate constructs, besides PM, that may account for the observed relationship between EMS and adjustment, such as mood, personality or coping style. The present study did not include these or other such variables as controls, and this shortcoming precludes the more condent assertion that PM does indeed account for the relationship between PM and adjustment. Thirdly, the cross-sectional design of this study does not permit denitive causal inferences about the direction of the relationship between EMS and adjustment. In other words, adjustment could be a predictor of EMS just as well as the other way around as hypothesized in this study. However, the theoretical origins of EMS (Young et al., 2003) are developmentally prior to later experiences of insecure attachment, difculties with mood and poor adjustment, and this study relies on this theory to guide its interpretation of these ndings, while at the same time acknowledging this limitation. In terms of external validity or generalizabililty, there are likewise some notable limitations. This study is limited by its participants, who were homogenous in terms of age and ethnicity. Moreover, the correlations were in the small to medium range, and although statistically signicant in these analyses, these effect sizes suggest that robust conclusions may be premature at this point. As a result of these limitations and their threats to internal and external validity, the present ndings must be understood as providing promising preliminary, albeit not denitive, support to study hypotheses.

Clinical and research implications These ndings suggest that the assessment of college adjustment may be improved by adding measures of early maladaptive schemas and psychological mindedness to the testing battery. In addition, therapeutic interventions designed to improve college adjustment might protably focus on reducing the inuence of early maladaptive schemas (Young et al., 2003) and increasing psychological mindedness. Young et al. have outlined a number of comprehensive strategies in Schema Therapy to combat EMS, including the use of cognitive, behavioural, experiential and therapy relationship techniques. However, it might be argued that the effective implementation of these therapeutic techniques relies in some measure on the psychological mindedness of the client, that is, on his or her ability : : : to reect upon the meaning and motivation of the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of oneself and others (Farber, 1985, p. 170). Clinical and research experience (Conte et al., 1996; McCallum, Piper, Ogrodniczuk, & Joyce, 2003; Piper, McCallum, Joyce, Rosie, & Ogrodniczuk, 2001) indicate that PM has direct effects on psychotherapy process and outcome in both supportive and

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expressive treatment modalities. Therefore, therapists who practise out of diverse theoretical orientations are urged to engage their patients PM in the service of treatment. Excellent examples of this are presented in a recent handbook (Allen & Fonagy, 2006) on treatment approaches which are designed to increase mentalization (a conceptual sibling of PM) through psycho-education (Tobias, Haslam-Hopwood, Allen, Stein, & Bleiberg, 2006), psychotherapy (Bateman & Fonagy, 2006; Fearon et al., 2006) and in-patient treatment (Bleiberg, 2006). Rationales for the utility of the construct in behavioural (Lewis, 2006) and cognitive therapy (Bjorgvinsson & Hart, 2006) are also presented. Future studies are needed to elaborate upon these ndings, specically to determine which correlates of PM may be more or less explanatory in the relationship between EMS and adjustment. Towards this end, future studies might take a multi-trait, multimethod approach to assess these relationships, including measures of attachment, cognitive style and mindfulness with those used in this study. For example, the Psychological Mindedness Assessment Procedure (McCallum & Piper, 1990) or the Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985) might be employed. Experimental design features might also be incorporated in future studies, and a longitudinal design that follows students as they progress through college would also be an important future project. Finally, the investigation of the mediating effects of PM in the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and adjustment in diverse samples (general population or clinical samples) is recommended.

References
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