The role of childhood social fragmentation and perceived discrimination on maladaptive core schemas later in life among young adults at clinical high risk for psychosis and healthy comparisons.

OBJECTIVE

Neighborhood social fragmentation during childhood has been linked to the future onset of psychosis and poorer social functioning. Maladaptive core schemas may partly explain this relationship. This study examines whether childhood exposure to area-level social fragmentation is associated with maladaptive core schemas in adulthood and whether perceived discrimination mediates this relationship.

METHODS

Baseline data were collected from the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study 2 (2009-2013). Participants included adults at clinical high-risk for psychosis (N = 84) and healthy comparisons (N = 130). Childhood social fragmentation was derived from 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census data. Lifetime perceived discrimination and brief core schemas were assessed at baseline.

RESULTS

Greater childhood social fragmentation was statistically significantly associated with greater lifetime perceived discrimination (adjusted β = 0.21, 95 % CI: 0.03 to 0.39), which was in turn associated with maladaptive positive-other (adjusted β = -0.21, 95 % CI: -0.35 to -0.07) and negative-self core schemas in adulthood (adjusted β = 0.36, 95 % CI: 0.23 to 0.49). Lifetime perceived discrimination mediated 20.66 % of the relationship between childhood social fragmentation and positive-other schemas, and 35.96 % of the relationship with negative-self schemas.

CONCLUSION

In this cross-sectional study, our findings suggest that growing up in areas with greater social fragmentation may contribute to greater lifetime perceived discrimination, which may be linked to greater maladaptive core schemas in adulthood. Further prospective research is needed to explore how social fragmentation across development may impact core schema formation, with potential implications for designing interventions to mitigate maladaptive core schemas and psychopathology.