ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
The relationship between childhood trauma, early maladaptive schema and alexithymia: a multi-group path model of clinical and non-clinical samples
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hainan Provincial Anning Hospital, Haikou, China
- 2Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Beijing, China
- 3Lanxi No.5 Hospital, Jinhua, China
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Depression patients with comorbid alexithymia often experience difficulties in emotional expression and emotional recognition. Previous research has identified early maladaptive schemas (EMS) as mediators in the relationship between childhood trauma and alexithymia; however, no studies have examined this mediation in combined models across clinical and non-clinical samples. This study included 134 non-clinical participants (Mean age = 37.75, SD = 18.41) and 137 clinical participants diagnosed with depression according to ICD-10 criteria (Mean age = 35.80, SD = 11.22). Participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Young Schema Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Using multi-group path analysis, we tested a hypothesized model in which EMS mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and alexithymia in both clinical and non-clinical samples. Additionally, we examined whether structural paths differed between groups. Results revealed that the disconnection and rejection, impaired autonomy and performance, other-directedness, over-vigilance and inhibition and impaired limits schema domains significantly mediated the relationship in both samples. Notably, the association between the over-vigilance and inhibition schema domain and depression was significantly stronger in the clinical sample compared to the non-clinical sample. These findings highlight the mediating role of EMS in the link between childhood trauma and alexithymia and underscore group-specific differences in schema-depression associations, with implications for tailored clinical interventions.
Keywords: a multi-group path model, alexithymia, childhood trauma, Depression, early maladaptive schema
Received: 26 Nov 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Qiuying, LIU, Menglu, Sicen, lixia and Zhengtu. 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: Cong Zhengtu
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