Individuals Intolerant of Uncertainty: The Maintenance of Worry and Distress Despite Reduced Uncertainty

Intolerance of Uncertainty as a Central Influence on Social Media Use: A School-Based Program for Adolescents

This study evaluated a classroom program to address Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in secondary school students in Australia. IU is a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor for a range of psychological difficulties. A universal classroom program aimed to increase student understanding of feelings of uncertainty and explored socioemotional factors that could influence behaviors when facing uncertainty. Classroom teachers in two high schools were trained to deliver an 18-lesson program under naturalistic classroom conditions. Relative to the control group, the intervention lowered IU at post-test, but not at a later follow-up. The only socioemotional outcome measure to demonstrate a concurrent change was social media use. Limitations of the study were associated with the naturalistic classroom intervention, including the high level of attrition. Future studies may need to address broader factors in the students' context that could influence intolerance of uncertainty.

The relationship between COVID-19 stress and test anxiety in art students: the chain mediating roles of intolerance of uncertainty and sleep quality

BACKGROUND

The global spread of COVID-19 has brought immense physiological and psychological distress to students, such as test anxiety and poor sleep quality. This study aims to explore the relationship between COVID-19 stress and test anxiety and the mediating roles of intolerance of uncertainty and sleep quality between them.

METHODS

A study was conducted in China during the late stage of the pandemic. A total of 936 Chinese art students (age M = 18.51, SD = 2.11, 46.6% female) completed the Coronavirus Stress Measure (CSM), the 12-item Intolerance of Uncertainty (IUS-12), the Brief Version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (B-PSQI), and the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI). A chain mediation model analysis was conducted to examine the mediating effects of intolerance of uncertainty and sleep quality on the association with COVID-19 stress and test anxiety.

RESULTS

COVID-19 stress was positively associated with test anxiety (β = 0.50, p < 0.001). The intolerance of uncertainty and sleep quality partially and serially mediated the relationship between COVID-19 stress and test anxiety (β = 0.01, 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.02).

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that art students' intolerance of uncertainty and sleep quality partially and serially mediate the relation between COVID-19 stress and test anxiety. The results have significant implications for the intervention and prevention of test anxiety, providing additional evidence for the relationship between COVID-19 stress and test anxiety.

Psychometric Properties of the Iranian Version of Contrast Avoidance Questionnaires: Could Contrast Avoidance Be a New Transdiagnostic Construct?

The contrast avoidance model (CAM) hypothesizes that individuals with chronic worry recruit worry to create and maintain a negative emotional state to avoid sudden increases in negative emotions. Preliminary evidence using the contrast avoidance questionnaires (CAQs) suggests that there might be a similar mechanism across mood and other anxiety disorders. To continue to assess the CAQs, they should be adapted for other languages and evaluated across multiple symptom domains. The present study aimed to develop the Persian versions of the CAQs and examine the transdiagnostic nature of CAM across two studies. A large Persian-speaking college student sample (Total n = 1438) was used to evaluate the factor structure of the CAQs (Study 1) and the psychometric properties of CAQs (Study 2). Results supported the two-factor structure of the CAQ-W (worry) and CAQ-GE (general emotion). Results showed that CAQ-W was a significant predictor of anxiety-related measures. However, CAQ-GE and IUS-12 significantly predicted depressive and other symptoms over the CAQ-W. Results demonstrated excellent psychometric properties. They indicate that contrast avoidance, measured via CAQ-GE, could be a transdiagnostic construct, and CAQ-W may be more sensitive to anxiety-specific contrast avoidance among Persian speaking and/or Iranian individuals.

Intolerance of uncertainty and reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a threat to mental health worldwide. The current study aims to investigate the role of intolerance of uncertainty in cognitive, emotional and behavioral reactions to this pandemic and propose a path model of these reactions. In the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia, participants in a general sample (n = 1,011) as well as an older adult sample (n = 655) completed measures regarding intolerance of uncertainty, mental health (anxiety, well-being, perceived stress) and adherence to preventive measures. Two rounds of data collection were carried out in the first sample. Intolerance of uncertainty was found to be related to mental health indicators and the structural equation model showed a direct and indirect effect on them as well as on the adherence to preventive measures. However, the comparison of data from different time points has brought inconsistent results. The findings highlight the role of intolerance of uncertainty in reaction to threat and indicate the potential of uncertainty reduction e.g., getting clear messages from authorities, as a way of decreasing mental health problems.

The influence of subcortical shortcuts on disordered sensory and cognitive processing

The very earliest stages of sensory processing have the potential to alter how we perceive and respond to our environment. These initial processing circuits can incorporate subcortical regions, such as the thalamus and brainstem nuclei, which mediate complex interactions with the brain's cortical processing hierarchy. These subcortical pathways, many of which we share with other animals, are not merely vestigial but appear to function as 'shortcuts' that ensure processing efficiency and preservation of vital life-preserving functions, such as harm avoidance, adaptive social interactions and efficient decision-making. Here, we propose that functional interactions between these higher-order and lower-order brain areas contribute to atypical sensory and cognitive processing that characterizes numerous neuropsychiatric disorders.