On the Experience of Awaiting Uncertain News

Abstract

At some point in life, everyone must wait for important news—whether the news from college applications, job interviews, medical tests, academic exams, or even romantic overtures. Until recently, the psychological literature on stress and coping had largely overlooked these common and often distressing experiences. However, the past 5 years have seen significant advances in the understanding of waiting experiences, revealing insights into the nature, time course, and consequences of distress during waiting periods; individual differences in these experiences; and effective and ineffective strategies for coping with this type of uncertainty. This article reviews the emerging findings from this growing literature and provides suggestions for future research in this area.

Fulfilling psychological needs predicts less sleep disruption and worry while awaiting uncertain news

“…Perhaps pursuing novel activities can help to break the patterns of repetitive thought that are inherent in waiting. Such an idea is consistent with findings that engaging deeply in a task—finding a flow state—alleviates distress while people awaiting uncertain news (Rankin, Walsh, & Sweeny, ).…”

“…We measured participants' worry using a combination of three items that capture both the cognitive and emotional components of worry. One item assessed repetitive thoughts about the bar exam (“I can't seem to stop thinking about the bar exam”), and two assessed anxiety about the bar exam (“I feel anxious every time I think about the bar exam,” “I am worried about my bar exam results;” 1 = strongly disagree , 7 = strongly agree ; (Sweeny & Howell, ; Sweeny, Kwan, & Falkenstein, ; Tran, Dooley, Ramirez‐Loyola, Andrews, & Sweeny, ).…”

“…One item assessed repetitive thoughts about the bar exam ("I can't seem to stop thinking about the bar exam"), and two assessed anxiety about the bar exam ("I feel anxious every time I think about the bar exam," "I am worried about my bar exam results;" 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree;(Sweeny & Howell, 2017;Sweeny, Kwan, & Falkenstein, 2017;Tran, Dooley, Ramirez-Loyola, Andrews, & Sweeny, 2017).TABLE 1 Cronbach's alphas, means, and standard deviations for all time-varying variables…”

The Role of Gender in Worry and Efforts to Cope during Stressful Waiting Periods

“…Waiting periods induce a type of stress that is unique in some ways from other types of stressors. Most notably, the types of waiting periods of interest in our investigation (e.g., the wait for exam or election results) entail a lack of certainty about one's future outcomes combined with a lack of control over those outcomes (Sweeny, 2018). These circumstances call for a unique set of coping strategies, as outlined in the uncertainty navigation model (Sweeny & Cavanaugh, 2012): consequence mitigation, reappraisal, and direct emotion management.…”

Health behavior during periods of stressful uncertainty: associations with emotions, cognitions, and expectation management

“…Waiting for uncertain news represents a period during which one has neither control over a stressor nor certainty about the outcome of that stressor (Sweeny, 2018). Consider a hypothetical student who will take a midterm exam in her psychology class.…”