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REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1436053
This article is part of the Research Topic From Childhood to Adulthood: Exploring the Role of Early Maladaptive Schemas in Child Development and Psychopathology View all articles

Understanding Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) in Autistic and ADHD Individuals: Exploring the Impact, Changing the Narrative, and Schema Therapy Considerations

Provisionally accepted
Liam Spicer Liam Spicer 1*Emma DeCicco Emma DeCicco 2Anna Clarke Anna Clarke 3Rikki Ambrosius Rikki Ambrosius 4Ozgur Yalcin Ozgur Yalcin 5
  • 1 Curtin University, Perth, Australia
  • 2 Dash - Health Hub, Perth, Australia
  • 3 Divergent Futures, Brisbane, Australia
  • 4 Rikki Ambrosius Clinical Psychologist, Perth, Australia
  • 5 Anima Health, Perth, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Autistic/ADHD individuals are increasingly recognised as a valid minority group, with consistent research demonstrating a higher prevalence of co-occurring mental health conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance use, and eating disorders among other mental health challenges (Lai et al., 2019; Frank et al., 2018). Due to this, there is increasing focus on the adaptations required for Autistic and ADHD individuals of current therapeutic approaches such as Schema Therapy.Particular emphasis when creating these adaptations needs to include looking at the developmental experiences, social influences, and continued adversity faced by Autistic and ADHD individuals across the lifespan, and how the narrative around Autism and ADHD within psychotherapy in general needs to change. This paper critically examines the role of attachment, unmet needs, and adverse childhood experiences in Autistic and ADHD individuals and the subsequent impact on schema development and maintenance and mental health. This will include an overview of the current literature in this area, reconsideration of understandings of Autism and ADHD, particular therapeutic considerations and adjustments and importantly discussion around the wider societal changes that need to occur to prevent schema development and reinforcement across the lifespan.

    Keywords: Schemas, autism, ADHD, Attachment, Unmet needs, ACES

    Received: 21 May 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Spicer, DeCicco, Clarke, Ambrosius and Yalcin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Liam Spicer, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.