The mediating role of inferential confusion in the relationship between maladaptive schemas and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Research has shown that there are relationships between early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OC), but no research has been performed on the mediating role of  inferential confusion in this regard. Therefore,  the question of research is whether  inferential confusion can mediate this relationship?.

The present study was carried out aming to investigate the mediation role of inferential confusion in the relationships between EMSs and OC symptoms in university students.

The present research was a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population of this study included all undergraduate students  in  Arak University. Among them, a  sample  of 532  undergraduate students were selected by multiple cluster sampling method. To collect data, the obsessive-compulsive inventory-revised (Foa et al. 2002), the Young early maladaptive schema questionnaire-short form (1998), and the inferential confusion questionnaire-expanded version (Ardema et al, 2010) were used.

According to maladaptive schemas and inferential confusion theories, findings indicated the significant direct and indirect effects of EMSs on OC symptoms through the mediating inferential confusion (p<0/01, p<0/05) .

The findings emphasizd that both EMSs and inferential confusion are important to explain OC symptoms. Also,  inferential confusion as a mediator is a variable that explins the relationships between EMSs and OC symptoms.