Undergraduate Research Journal of Psychology at UCLA

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating condition that often emerges during childhood and adolescence, marked by distressing obsessions and impairing compulsions that disrupt daily function and personal well-being. The current literature suggests a significant relationship between early trauma and the development of OCD in youth, with early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) serving as a key mechanism in this pathway. Taken together, various studies connect the components of childhood trauma, EMSs, and OCD into one tightly-linked trajectory, particularly emphasizing the role of “disconnection/rejection” and “impaired autonomy/performance” schemas in the development of obsessive-compulsive pathology. Despite treatment methods such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) being considered the gold standard treatments for OCD, schema therapy (ST) shows promise for meaningfully addressing the underlying EMSs that may cause and uphold OCD symptoms, especially for trauma-exposed youth. Recent studies, though limited by methodological weaknesses such as small sample sizes and lack of control groups, suggest that schema therapy could disrupt the trauma-to-OCD pathway by directly targeting entrenched negative beliefs, harmful thought patterns, and deficiencies in healthy self-perception that often lie at the root of OCD. Future high-quality studies investigating the efficacy of schema therapy (and perhaps its technologically-based variations) on trauma-exposed youth with OCD are warranted to explore the full potential of ST as a treatment for this particularly vulnerable population.