Development of a scale to evaluate young children’s responses to uncertainty and low environmental structure
Abstract
Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), defined as the dispositional interpretation of uncertain or ambiguous events as stressful and problematic, has been linked to excessive worry and other anxiety-related problems in adults and youth. IU has been conceptualized as a vulnerability factor for excessive worry and anxiety, but the historical absence of a supported measure of IU in young children has hampered longitudinal research needed to evaluate temporal relationships between IU and anxiety and the differential developmental pathways of IU leading to different anxiety disorders and depression. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of a newly developed 17-item parent-report measure of younger children's Responses to Uncertainty and Low Environmental Structure (i.e., the RULES questionnaire). We examined the preliminary structure, reliability, and validity of the RULES within a treatment-seeking sample of children aged 3-10 (N=160) with anxiety. Findings from an exploratory factor analysis supported a one-factor model that retained all 17 items. The RULES demonstrated strong internal consistency, and predictive, convergent, and divergent validity. In this early childhood sample, the RULES also showed stronger associations with anxiety than did a previously supported measure of IU developed for older youth, and showed preliminary sensitivity to treatment-related change. Findings provide preliminary psychometric support for the RULES as a parent-report measure of children's responses to uncertainty and low environmental structure that may inform etiologic models of anxiety.
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The RULES has been validated as a psychometrically sound measure of uncertainty in young children with anxiety.
“The RULES has been validated as a psychometrically sound measure of uncertainty in young children with anxiety [39].”
From DINOSAUR: an integrated cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety in young children with ASD (2021) · cites this paper as [39]
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- Authors
- Sanchez, A. L., Cornacchio, D., Chou, T., Leyfer, O., Coxe, S., Pincus, D., & Comer, J. S.
- Affiliations
- Florida International University (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sanchez, Amanda L.
- Venue
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-01
- Volume
- 45
- Pages
- 17-23
- ISSN
- 0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2550491106
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 2.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH090247)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- intolerance of uncertainty, young children, anxiety, parent-report measures, psychometric properties, environmental structure, early childhood anxiety, causes of anxiety, scale development
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety, Child, Child, Preschool, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Environment, Reproducibility of Results, Uncertainty
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