Young Schema Questionnaire - Revised (YSQ-R)
What it is
The Young Schema Questionnaire - Revised (YSQ-R) is a self-report questionnaire designed to assess early maladaptive schemas (EMS) — deeply rooted, pervasive patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that develop during childhood and adolescence in response to unmet emotional needs. Maladaptive schemas influence how individuals interpret and respond to their experiences, and are a central focus of schema therapy.
The YSQ-R is a Rasch-derived revision of the earlier long (YSQ-L3, 232 items) and short (YSQ-S3, 90 items) forms of the Young Schema Questionnaire. It combines the breadth of the long form with the brevity of the short form, making it particularly suitable for both research and clinical use.
How is it used
- Suitable for adults aged 18 and over
- Provides scores across multiple schema domains (early maladaptive schemas)
- Used in schema therapy assessment and formulation to identify core schema patterns
- Can be used at baseline and during or after treatment to monitor schema change
- Not intended as a stand-alone diagnostic tool; results are best interpreted within the context of a broader clinical assessment
Common schema domains assessed include areas such as abandonment, mistrust, emotional deprivation, defectiveness, failure, dependence, vulnerability, enmeshment, subjugation, self-sacrifice, emotional inhibition, and unrelenting standards, among others.
What do the scores mean?
Items are typically rated on a 6-point scale from 1 (completely untrue of me) to 6 (describes me perfectly). Subscale scores for each schema are calculated by averaging the relevant items. Higher subscale scores indicate stronger endorsement of that schema.
There are no diagnostic cut-off scores. Interpretation focuses on the relative strength of different schemas — identifying which schemas are most active for a given individual — and tracking change in schema strength over time during therapy.
Research suggests the YSQ-R demonstrates comparable predictive validity to the longer YSQ-L3 across diverse clinical groups, including those with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and substance use difficulties, while being more practical for routine clinical use.
Developer
The YSQ was originally developed by Jeffrey E. Young. The YSQ-R revision was developed by Cockram, Drummond, and Lee (2010) and subsequently validated by Doyle, Kavanagh, and colleagues.
References:
Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema therapy: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press.
Doyle, N., Kavanagh, D., McCusker, M., & Morgan, K. (2023). The YSQ-R: Predictive validity and comparison to the short and long form Young Schema Questionnaire. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 2900.