Examination of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Construct in Youth With Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Open accessAbstract
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a dispositional characteristic reflecting negative cognitive, behavioral, and emotional reactivity in response to events or situations that are uncertain. Although closely associated with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) diagnosis in adulthood, IU has received little attention in youth. The goal of this study was to examine the construct in children with GAD and nonanxious children, including its incremental validity in predicting GAD severity and worry beyond anxiety. Ninety-eight children 6 to 11 years of age (51% male; 57% Caucasian) were assessed. The sample included 24 with a GAD diagnosis only (i.e., pure GAD), 36 with GAD plus at least one other disorder (i.e., comorbid GAD), and 38 healthy control children. Clinician, parent, and child reports of IU, anxiety, worry, and GAD severity were collected. Significant differences in levels of IU were found across all three groups; the highest levels in children with comorbid GAD, followed by children with pure GAD, and healthy controls. IU significantly contributed to worry but not GAD severity beyond the effects of anxiety. A significantly larger proportion of self-reported IU data were missing for younger (e.g., 6-8 years) as compared to older children, raising question about the validity of the construct in younger children. Overall findings suggest that IU is not specific to a GAD diagnosis in childhood. IU may instead serve as a broad cognitive risk factor for more severe (e.g., comorbid) forms of affective psychopathology. Future directions for research, including developmental considerations, are discussed.
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IU is associated with global anxiety severity, but not with GAD symptom severity specifically.
“several studies have found that IU is associated with global anxiety severity, but not with GAD symptom severity specifically [30, 31].”
From Intolerance of Uncertainty and Parental Accommodation: Promising Targets for Personalized Intervention for Youth Anxiety. (2020) · cites this paper as [30]
The Results (page not provided) report that IU correlated with general anxiety severity and was also associated with GAD severity in the GAD groups. IU did not independently predict GAD severity after accounting for anxiety, so the claim is supported only if “not with GAD symptom severity specifically” means no unique association—not no association at all. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Cowie, J., Clementi, M. A., & Alfano, C. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cowie, Jennifer
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-09-21
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1014-1022
- ISSN
- 1537-4416 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-4424
- PMC
- PMC7364664
- OpenAlex
- W2522168979
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 3.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH081188)
- 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 › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Educational Research Studies
- Keywords
- intolerance of uncertainty, generalized anxiety disorder, children, youth, worry, anxiety levels, comorbidities, incremental validity, cognitive risk factors, developmental considerations, self-report validity
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety Disorders, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Motivation, Parents, Personality, Uncertainty, Self Report
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