Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Anxiety Stress Coping. 2010 Jul;23(4):471-8. doi: 10.1080/10615800903494135.
Research has shown that intolerance of uncertainty (IU) - the tendency to react negatively to situations that are uncertain - is involved in worry and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as in other anxiety symptoms and disorders. To our knowledge, no studies have yet examined the association between IU and emotional distress connected with the death of a loved one. Yet, it seems plausible that those who have more difficulties to tolerate the uncertainties that often times occur following such a loss experience more intense distress. The current study examined this assumption, using self-reported data from 134 bereaved individuals. Findings showed that IU was positively and significantly correlated with symptom levels of complicated grief and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even when controlling for time since loss (the single demographic/loss-related variable associated with symptom levels), and for neuroticism and worry, which are both correlates of IU. Furthermore, IU was specifically related with worry and symptom levels of PTSD, but not complicated grief, when controlling the shared variance between worry, complicated grief severity, and PTSD-severity. The present findings complement prior research that has shown that IU is a cognitive vulnerability factor for worry, and indicate that it may also be involved in emotional distress following loss.
研究表明，不确定性容忍度（IU）——对不确定情况产生负面反应的倾向——与担忧和广泛性焦虑症以及其他焦虑症状和障碍有关。据我们所知，尚无研究探讨 IU 与因亲人去世而产生的情绪困扰之间的关联。然而，似乎有理由认为，那些更难以忍受在这种丧失经历后经常出现的不确定性的人，会感到更强烈的痛苦。本研究使用 134 名丧亲者的自我报告数据，对这一假设进行了检验。研究结果表明，IU 与复杂悲痛和创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的症状水平呈正相关，且具有统计学意义，即使在控制了自丧亡以来的时间（与症状水平相关的唯一人口统计学/与丧失相关的变量）、神经质和担忧等因素后也是如此，而神经质和担忧均与 IU 相关。此外，在控制担忧、复杂悲痛严重程度和 PTSD 严重程度之间的共同方差后，IU 与 PTSD 的担忧和症状水平呈特异性相关，而与复杂悲痛无关。本研究结果补充了先前研究表明 IU 是担忧的认知脆弱因素，并表明其也可能与丧失后的情绪困扰有关。
