ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Positive Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1619308
The Predictive Roles of Self-Compassion, Perceived Social Support, and Psychological Flexibility in Early Maladaptive Schemas among College Students: An Exploration Based on Latent Profile Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China
- 2Henan Children's Hospital Zhengzhou Children's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China
- 3Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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Purpose This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify subgroups of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) among college students based on the five core schema domains, and then investigated how these profiles related to self-compassion, perceived social support, and psychological flexibility. Methods A total of 1184 college students from universities in Northwest China were selected using cluster sampling (47.3% male, 52.7% female; 58.1% freshmen, 21.4% sophomores, 12.8% juniors, and 7.7% seniors). Participants completed a cross-sectional survey including the Short Form of the Young Schema Questionnaire , the Self-Compassion Scale , the Perceived Social Support Scale , and the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire (Short Form). Results LPA identified three different EMSs profiles: low, moderate, and high. The high group scored significantly higher in disconnection and rejection , impaired autonomy and performance , impaired limits , other-directedness and over-vigilance and inhibition compared with the other two groups, while the low group demonstrated the lowest scores across all domains. Additionally, degrees of self-compassion, perceived social support, and psychological flexibility differed considerably between profiles. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that gender, grade level, self-compassion, perceived social support, and psychological flexibility significantly predicted profile membership in the expected directions. Conclusion The study revealed clear variations in EMSs among college students, yielding three distinct profiles. The findings support the hypothesis, and provide a theoretical basis for developing targeted psychological interventions aimed at enhancing self-compassion, strengthening social support, and improving psychological flexibility.
Keywords: Early maladaptive schemas, Psychological flexibility, self-compassion, perceived social support, college & university students
Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Liu, Jia, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lixia Zhang, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, 100096, Beijing Municipality, China
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