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The Development and Validation of the Intolerance of Uncertainty in Social Interactions Scale

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is commonly defined as the tendency for one to interpret uncertainty as negative or threatening. Most general or non-specific measures of IU show a strong relationship with worry and generalized anxiety; however, a specialized measure of intolerance of uncertainty in social situations could provide insight into the role of IU in social anxiety. This study's purpose was to develop and validate the Intolerance of Uncertainty in Social Interactions Scale, a comprehensive measure designed to assess intolerance of uncertainty in social situations. Participants consisted of a non-referred, adult undergraduate sample (N=456). Based on an exploratory factor analysis, a two-factor solution was retained, with factors labeled 'Social Ambiguity' and 'Need to Reduce'. Both subscales were found to have good reliability, construct validity, incremental validity, and internal validity. For example, in terms of incremental validity, the IU-SIS predicted up to 16% of the variance in score on measures of social anxiety after controlling for variance explained by well-established, general measures of IU. The IU-SIS shows great promise as a tool to further investigate the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and social anxiety.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd2020-2835
Date15 August 2023
CreatorsEible, Anne
PublisherSTARS
Source SetsUniversity of Central Florida
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceElectronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

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