CİNSİYET VE DUYGUSAL FARKINDALIK KONTROLÜNDE ŞEMALARIN SOSYAL KAYGIYLA İLİŞKİSİ: TÜRK-MOĞOL KÜLTÜRLERARASI KARŞILAŞTIRMASI

Abstract

This study aimed to adapt the Young Schema Questionnaire, Social Anxiety Scale, and Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale into Mongolian, to investigate measurement invariance across Turkish and Mongolian samples, and to examine the relationships between early maladaptive schemas and social anxiety after controlling for gender and emotional awareness scores. The sample consisted of 792 university students — 322 from Türkiye and 470 from Mongolia. Data were collected using the Young Schema Questionnaire–Short Form 3, the Social Anxiety Scale, and the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale. Construct validity was assessed through confirmatory factor analysis; measurement invariance was examined at the configural, metric, and scalar levels; and reliability was evaluated using McDonald's omega coefficients. Relationships between schemas and social anxiety were assessed using partial canonical correlation analysis after controlling for emotional awareness and gender. All three instruments demonstrated generally acceptable validity and reliability in both cultures. Measurement invariance analyses supported full scalar invariance for the Social Anxiety Scale and partial scalar invariance for the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale and the Young Schema Questionnaire–Short Form 3. Emotional awareness scores were significantly higher in the Turkish sample than in the Mongolian sample. Partial canonical correlation analysis showed that strong and significant relationships between early maladaptive schemas and social anxiety persisted in both samples even after controlling for emotional awareness and gender. Tucker's congruence coefficients indicated that the first canonical function reflected a largely similar structure across the two cultures. The findings support the cross-cultural importance of early maladaptive schemas in explaining social anxiety and provide evidence for the cross-cultural validity of schema theory.