312: Differences within early maladaptive schemas in healthy young adults with or without experience of childhood sexual abuse

Maria Durianova, Marta Popelkova, Antonia Kotianova, Department of Psychology Sciences, Faculty of Social Science and Health Care, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic; Michaela Chupáčová , Michal Kotian , Psychagogia s.r.o, Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovak Republic; Jan Prasko 1*,3*, Department of Psychology Sciences, Faculty of Social Science and Health Care, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University Palacky Olomouc, University Hospital, Olomouc, Czech Republic; Milos Slepecky, Department of Psychology Sciences, Faculty of Social Science and Health Care, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovak Republic

Introduction: Aversive experiences during childhood are considered as the main predictor of early maladaptive schemas (EMS) and they are also connected with several psychological and psychiatric problems in adulthood. Sexual abuse is a worldwide problem, which has often negative impact on individual’s life and can lead to psychological and interpersonal problems. The aim of this study is to observe the differences within EMS in individuals with or without experience of sexual abuse during childhood. Method: We used Adverse Childhood Experiences – International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) to find out adverse traumatic experiences during childhood. This questionnaire has 36 items of different categories, Contact sexual abuse included. Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form (YSQ-S3) was used to evaluate of participants‘ EMS. It consists of 90 items resulting to 18 different EMS (e.g. Emotional Deprivation, Mistrust/Abuse, Failure, Self-sacrifice). Results: Participants, which experienced contact sexual abuse during childhood, scored higher only in  unconditional schema Mistrust/Abuse and in conditional EMS Entitetment/Grandiosity, Insufficient Self-control/Self-discipline and Approval-seeking/Recognition-seeking in comparision with participants without experience of sexual abuse. Conclusion: It appears that sexual abuse was not strongly involved in development of EMS in our sample of healthy young people. It is contradictory to assumption about role of sexual abuse in development of EMS in clinic population. More research is needed to clarify which factors mediate development of EMS after experience of sexual abuse to know how to provide better treatment for these patients.

311: Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese Version of the Invalidating Childhood Environment Scale

Ana Isabel Vieira, MSc, Mónica Gonçalves, MSc, Psychotherapy and Psychopathology Research Unit – CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal;Bárbara César Machado, PhD, CEDH – Centre for Studies in Human Development, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, Portugal; Tânia Rodrigues, MSc, Paulo P. P. Machado, PhD, Psychotherapy and Psychopathology Research Unit – CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal;Isabel Brandão, MD, PhD, Sertório Timóteo, MD, Patrícia Nunes, MD, Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital of S. João, Porto, Portugal; Sónia Gonçalves, PhD, Psychotherapy and Psychopathology Research Unit – CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.

Introduction This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Invalidating Childhood Environment Scale (ICES) in a non-clinical and clinical sample of eating disorder (ED) patients. This study also investigated the between-sample differences regarding invalidating parental behaviours and family styles and explored the associations between invalidating childhood environments and eating pathology. Method A sample of 410 high school and college students and 101 patients with a diagnosis of ED completed self-report measures. Principal component analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the factor structure of the ICES. The internal consistency and the between-sample differences and associations between invalidating childhood environments and eating pathology were also tested. Results Principal component analyses and confirmatory factor analyses indicated a two-factor solution for each parent. The ICES demonstrated high internal consistency and was able to differentiate between non-clinical and clinical samples. The perception of parental invalidation was higher in ED patients, and the clinical sample presented higher scores in the chaotic and perfect family styles and lower scores in the validating family style, in comparison with the non-clinical sample. Both maternal invalidation and invalidating styles were significantly associated with a higher ED symptomatology. Discussion The Portuguese version of the ICES revealed adequate psychometric properties. Considering the relationship between invalidation in family and eating pathology, the ICES may be useful in clinical practice, especially among ED patients.

324: Maladaptive perfectionism and test anxiety: The mediation effect of self-criticism and shame in a sample of Portuguese medical students

Tânia Rodrigues, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Portugal, Maria do Céu Salvador, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal, Pedro Teixeira, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal

Introduction. When compared to general community and peers, medical students reveal higher test anxiety (TA) and perfectionism, a personality disposition comprising adaptive/maladaptive dimensions. The transdiagnostic psychological processes underlying the relatonship between MP and TA in higher education (HE) students are yet to explore. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between MP, TA, self-criticism and shame, in a sample of medical students. Method. 336 medical students (234 female), Mage=20.39, SD=2.72) recruited from Portuguese HE institutions. In addition to sociodemographic data, all subjects filled a set of quetionnaires assessing test anxiety (RT), perfectionism (MPS), self-criticism and self-reassurance (FSCRS), shame (OAS), depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21). Pearson correlation analyses and path analysis were used to explore the data. Results. Pearson correlations revealed statistically significant moderated to large associations between the variables. A path analysis indicated that MP was associated with highter TA sympoms, though the mediation effect of external shame and self-criticism. The tested model revealed a good fit to the data and accounted for a total of 34 % of TA variance in medical students. Discussion. Results expand current knowledge on mechanisms linking MP and TA, corroborating the theoretical conceptualization of self-criticism as a process to regulate the aversive experience of shame. Students with TA might engage in a self-critic inner speech to avoid feelings of shame. These findings highlight the importance of addressing these processes during treatment of performance anxiety and of implementing compassion-based programmes in HE, promoting medical students'adaptive emotionregulation skills towards academic/personal challenges.

Attentional bias for affective stimuli: an eye-tracking study in a student sample with depressive and/or autistic traits
Annemiek Bergman *1.2., Janna Vrijsen *1.2.3., Constance Vissers *4., Aart Schene *1.2. 

1.Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2.Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3. Pro Persona Mental Health Care, Depression Expertise Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
4.Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

The lifetime prevalence of depression in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is remarkably high; approximately 30-50%, opposed to 20% in the general population. Unfortunately, very little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that underlie this increased risk for developing depression in ASD. According to cognitive theories (Beck, 2008), affective biases engender and maintain depressive symptoms. Depressed individuals preferentially attend to negative information (negative attentional bias). We therefore developed a new eye-tracking task to measure attentional bias for affective stimuli in a student population with autistic and/or depressive traits. The stimuli were divided into different categories varying on valence and showed social and non-social scenes, and photographs of actors with different emotional expressions. These different stimulus categories were selected to trigger differential attentional processing in individuals with varying levels of ASD and depressive symptoms. Sixty-four students participated in this eye-tracking task and underwent an assessment of ASD and depression symptoms. We will present and discuss the preliminary results on the poster. This is one of the first studies to explore affective attentional biases with various stimulus categories in a population with ASD and with or without depressive traits. The clinical relevance of this study is to expand knowledge about the role of biased information processing in ASD, this is relevant in the light of current treatment innovations whether bias is a target of computerized (add-on) treatment, as for example Attention Bias Modification.
REFERENCES
Beck, A. T. (2008). The evolution of the cognitive model of depression and its neurobiological correlates. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(8), 969-977.

 

149: The Effect of Perceived Psychological Control on the Automatic Thoughts of Children
Emel Güler, Refia Aslıhan Dönmez, Okan University Hospital

The research indicates that the negative affects of the early childhood experiences have impact  on the negative cognitive constructs. Besides, parents within the family system have been known to have significant events on the development of the children. It is considered to have major impact on the children that the parents provides them with the support and the control on them. The term ' control', is used to mean the pressing, dominating, or manipulating of the parents. Early childhood phase is known as a critical period in which negative constructs on the cognitive structure are placed and processed. The main purpose of this research is to determine the effect of the negative effects of the early childhood experiences on the negative cognitive constructs. Upon this, the child automatic thoughts inventory, psychological control scale and the sociodemographical information form have been applied on the dubjects whose ages range between 7-12 ( n=82). According to results, the perceived deprivation of live score between 12-13 ages has been found high compared to other scores. The physical danger and the social threat perception on the children of single parents have been found significantly high compared to the children of the married couples. In research , the perceived parents psychological control has an impact on the negative automatic thoughts. As a result, the more perceived parents psychological control increases, the more the negative automatic thoughts emerge. One of the main assumptions of the CBT is about the nature of the essential role of the negative thoughts on the psychopathology. Derived from this fact, parent information studies are advised for the future. Key words: automatic thoughts, psychological control, parental control , automatic thoughts of the children