The Influence of Early Maladaptive Schemes on Behavior in the Conflicts of a Married Couple

The study of family conflicts is of great importance in modern conditions, as they can have a serious impact on the psychological and emotional well-being of all family members. At the same time, family conflicts are an integral part of the life of most spouses, and in the case of adaptive coping with conflict situations, relationships may even be strengthened. Effective coping with conflict requires an understanding of the nature, causes, and characteristics of conflict. In particular, behavior in conflict situations is influenced by personality traits, which can also include early maladaptive patterns (EMS). Expressed EMS are negatively related to marital satisfaction, and positively related to the level of aggression. In addition, pronounced early maladaptive schemas predict low marital satisfaction and affect communication between spouses. Marital dissatisfaction, in turn, is related to destructive conflict behavior (e.g., verbal aggression). Also, low marital satisfaction is associated with the use of conflict resolution styles such as withdrawal and confrontation. Based on this, it can be assumed that marital satisfaction is an intermediate link in this chain and the effect of EMS on conflict resolution styles is primary. The hypothesis of the study consists in the assumption that the presence of expressed early maladaptive schemes, namely: abandonment, defectiveness, social alienation, emotional deprivation, vulnerability, submissiveness are predictors of spouses' use of such strategies of conflict behavior as withdrawal and concession. In the course of the empirical study we used such techniques as J. Young's test of early maladaptive schemes, Thomas-Kilman conflict resolution styles test and Aleshina's "Marital Satisfaction". The data were processed using correlation, regression and mediation analysis. The results obtained generally speak in favor of the hypothesis. However, two EMS, namely defectiveness and social isolation, which were supposed to determine the styles of avoidance and accommodation, were not predictors of any of the conflict resolution strategies, and in this part the hypothesis was not confirmed. There were also findings that go beyond the hypothesis and are of interest for further research.