Does cognitive flexibility change the nature of the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and psychological symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the mental health of the general population worldwide. The study aimed to determine the associations of the intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and cognitive flexibility (CF) with a variety of psychological symptoms and to examine the impact of IU on psychological symptoms through the moderating role of CF. The Brief Symptom Inventory, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12, and Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire were applied to a sample of 3004 adults living in Turkey. The results of the analysis indicated that CF moderated the effect of IU on psychology symptoms. The slope analysis revealed a weakening association between IU and psychological symptoms with the introduction of a high CF level introduced to the model. The findings highlighted the importance of IU as a potential risk factor for developing psychological symptoms while CF appears as a potential protective factor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aggressive behavior, boredom, and protective factors among college students during closed-off management of the COVID-19 pandemic in China

“…Cognitive flexibility plays a key role in reappraising situations (Dennis and Vander Wal, 2010;Inozu et al, 2022). It refers to people's mental ability to switch cognitive sets to adapt to changing environmental stimuli (Martin and Rubin, 1994;Dennis and Vander Wal, 2010).…”

The Prevalence of Fear of Childbirth and Its Association With Intolerance of Uncertainty and Coping Styles Among Pregnant Chinese Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Emerging evidence has shown that the COVID-19 outbreak had a significant psychological impact on pregnant women (14)(15)(16). Temporary closure of public places, strict quarantine policies, and other measures were taken in various countries to prevent the spread of the virus (14,(17)(18)(19). There was a lot of available negative news information about COVID-19 online, which may increase distress and fears for the users.…”

Interplay between uncertainty intolerance, emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, and psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-wave study

“…In line with recent models of resilience and vulnerability processes in the pandemic context 21 , IU is expected to predict psychopathology, and ER difficulties and CCF are considered to modulate the impact of this factor on the trajectory of psychopathology. In line with these theoretical models, studies have vouched for a mediating effect of ER difficulties in the relationship between IU and psychopathology 23 , 67 , and another study has shown that different levels of CCF moderate the relation between IU and psychopathology 61 . As such, we had two main aims in the present study.…”

“…Very few studies have investigated the relationship between CCF and psychopathological symptomatology, with one study indicating that CCF was associated with pandemic-related anxiety 59 , and another study outside the pandemic context showing associations with depressive symptom severity 60 . Moreover, a first study examining the relationship between IU, CCF, and psychopathology found evidence for a moderating role of CCF in the relationship between IU and mental health difficulties 61 , indicating that greater levels of CCF supported adaptation to the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which further buffered increases in mental health problems. On the other hand, the relationship between CCF and ER difficulties has remained poorly studied as well.…”