A Comparison of Perceived Parental Rearing Styles and Early Maladaptive Schemas in Students with Social Anxiety and Normal Students

The present study set out to compare perceived parental rearing styles and maladaptive schemas in students with social anxiety and normal students. The statistical population of the study was comprised of all female students studying in senior high schools in Baharestan County (Tehran Province) in 2013-14 academic year. Cluster sampling method was used and 140 students were selected via Social Phobia Inventory (Connor et al., 2000) and General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). In the next step, a sample of 70 students with social anxiety disorder and a sample of 70 students without social anxiety completed: (a) Young Parenting Inventory (YPI, 1994) a questionnaire measuring perception of parental rearing styles, and (b) Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF, 1998) a questionnaire measuring maladaptive schemas. Results showed that students with social anxiety reported higher levels of emotionally depriving parenting, belittling parenting, controlling parenting, and punitive parenting compared to the normal group. Moreover, the students with social anxiety had higher levels of maladaptive schemas in comparison with the normal group (except for unrelenting standards and enmeshment/undeveloped self). These findings are consistent with the notion that family environment factors such as parental rearing styles and maladaptive schemas may contribute to social anxiety symptoms.