Reliability and Validity of the German Version of the Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form 3 (YSQ-S3)

To date, the psychometric properties of the German version of the Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form 3 (YSQ-S3) have not yet been examined. We investigated the reliability and validity of the German version of the YSQ-S3. In a community sample of 1,150 participants and a clinical sample of 30 psychiatric inpatients, we performed reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analyses, and tested for group differences using analysis of variance. The YSQ-S3 proved to be reliable and corresponded to the theoretically proposed 18-dimensional structure. Schema scores were positively associated with measures of psychopathology and personality disorder, indicating convergent validity. Furthermore, the YSQ-S3 differentiated between participant subgroups defined by level of health-care utilization, supporting discriminant validity. We conclude that the YSQ-S3 is a psychometrically sound instrument that can be used in German-speaking countries in research on early maladaptive schemas. Further research is necessary particularly in larger clinical samples.