Intolerance of Uncertainty as a Factor of Social Anxiety in Student Youth

Abstract

During the last couple of decades in clinical psychology the interest in studying the role of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in the context of the manifestation of anxiety and depression has been prevalent, since a number of studies have shown that IU is an important correlation of various anxiety and neurotic disorders. However, little is known today about the extent to which the relationship between IU and social anxiety remains robust against cultural influences. The aim of the article is to find out how intolerance of uncertainty is related to social anxiety in different cultural contexts. Methods of the research. 86 university students (22 men and 64 women) agreed to volunteer and anonymous participate in this study. They were asked to answer questions related to social anxiety (fear and avoidance of social situations), fear of negative evaluation, intolerance of ambiguity, and avoidance of ambiguity, retrieved from the following questionnaires: Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Budner’s Tolerance-Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale, McLain’s General Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale. Results on correlation and regression analysis showed positive and statistically significant relationship between avoidance of ambiguity and social anxiety, which remained significant even when predictors were ordered in reverse order. At the same time, this relationship was significant for both fear and avoidance of social situations, while fear of negative evaluation was statistically insignificant predictor for the latter. Conclusions. Intolerance of uncertainty makes a significant contribution to the manifestation of social anxiety, independent of fear of negative evaluation, which is consistent with the results of Western researchers. Further research with representative samples is needed for experimental studies of this relationship as well as adaptations or development of contemporary scales for measuring intolerance of uncertainty