ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5486-9647
Date of Award
Fall 2024
Language
English
Embargo Period
1-15-2026
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School/Department
Department of Psychology
Program
Clinical Psychology
First Advisor
Julia Hormes
Committee Members
Julia Hormes, Drew Anderson
Keywords
intolerance of uncertainty, pregnancy, factor structure, intolerance of uncertainty scale, confirmatory factor analysis
Subject Categories
Clinical Psychology | Health Psychology
Abstract
Background: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has been proposed as a transdiagnostic mechanism driving anxiety, depression, and eating disorder symptoms. Pregnancy is a time of significant uncertainty, yet few studies have examined the measurement of IU and its impacts on pregnant people. The current study aimed to examine the psychometric performance of two versions of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-27 and IUS-12) and its associations with psychopathologies common in pregnancy.
Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of participants (n = 254) recruited for a larger study of a single-session intervention targeting disordered eating in pregnancy. We examined fit of participant baseline data with IUS-27 and IUS-12 factor structures using confirmatory factor analyses. We also assessed associations between IU and emotion dysregulation and depression and eating disorder symptoms, controlling for age, parity, and perceived social status.
Results: The IUS-12 provided superior fit to the data (CFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.93; RMSEA = 0.09) compared to the IUS-27. The IUS-12 was significantly (all p < 0.05) correlated with measures of emotion dysregulation (r = 0.67), depression (r = 0.15), and eating disorders (r = 0.37). Inhibitory IU rather than prospective IU was generally significantly associated with greater impairment (ß range = 0.46 – 3.51, p’s < 0.01), with the exception of depression scores.
Conclusions: Results from this study provide initial support for the IUS-12 as a valid measure of IU in pregnant people and suggest that IU is strongly associated with measures of emotion dysregulation and eating disorder behaviors in this population. Severe psychological distress in pregnancy is associated with complications in gestation and delivery and overall poor birth outcomes. Clinicians and doctors should consider using the IUS-12 as a general measure of psychological distress among pregnant patients.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Costello, Kayla, "Validation of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 in a sample of pregnant people" (2024). Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present). 98.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/etd/98
