Does Father Involvement Buffer the Negative Impacts of Maternal Early Maladaptive Schemas on Offspring Psychological Problems? A Moderated Mediation Model

Yasemin Mert, Yagmur Ar-Karci, Ilgın Gökler Danışman TED University, Turkey
yagmur.ar@tedu.edu.tr

IP2-4-E4

Parental impacts on the development of offspring psychopathology have been investigated for several years from different perspectives. Most of the studies have established a robust relationship between maternal factors (e.g., maternal psychopathology, parenting) and detrimental child outcomes, while only a limited number of research has examined how father involvement influences the offspring psychosocial development. Accordingly, the current study aimed to investigate whether father involvement had a protective effect on the relation between psychopathology susceptibility of mothers and children’s psychological symptoms. While the psychopathology susceptibility of the mothers was measured in terms of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs), psychopathology of children was assessed in terms of current psychological symptoms. Particularly, we tested (1) whether offspring emotion regulation strategies would mediate the relationship between maternal EMSs and children’s psychological symptoms; and (2) whetherpaternal involvement would moderate the relationship between maternal EMSs and children emotion regulation strategies. One hundred fifty-three mother-late adolescent dyads participated to the current study. Late adolescents filled out Father Involvement Scale, The Symptom Check List and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, while their mothers filled out Young Schema Questionnaire- Short Form- 3. To test the moderated mediation model, obtained data was analyzed using Hayes Process Macro. Results indicated that EMSs of mothers significantly predicted their children’spsychological symptoms, and emotion regulation skills of the children mediated the proposed relation. The negative impact of mothers’ EMSs on offspring psychological symptoms through emotion regulation skills accentuated when paternal involvement was either low or moderate. Obtained results were discussed in relation to Family System perspective and related psychosocial interventions.