Maria Zafiropoulou, Penelope-Alexia Avagianou and SidoraVassiliadou
Objective: Attachment bonds are present throughout one’s life and affect interpersonal relationships. Specifically, parent-child relationship is a key factor in the development of personality. Similarly, childhood experiences can lead to configuration and stabilization of cognitive patterns, which play an equally important role in the development and organization of one’s personality. The purpose of this study was to examine a) which dimensions of parental behaviour are related to early dysfunctional patterns as reported in the theory of schemas (Young), and b) adolescents’ age and gender differences in dysfunctional schemapatterns.
Methods: 636 adolescents (11 to 15 years) participated in the study, which completed a questionnaire on basic demographic data, the Schema Questionnaire for Children (SQC) and the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI).
Results: Results showed that frequency of dysfunctional schemas is affected by dimensions of attachment and that differentiations in dysfunctional schemas are related to adolescent’s gender and age.
Conclusion: The present study provided evidence that cognitive patterns formed in childhood are associated to different forms of parental attachment which, in turn, define the way of thinking and behaving in childhood and adulthood.