The relationship between coping styles, intolerance of uncertainty and psychological symptoms: A COVID-19 pandemic study

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between coping styles, intolerance of uncertainty and psychological symptoms in Covid-19 pandemic. Method: A total of 575 adults, 370 females and 205 males were included in the study. All participants were applied a Sociodemographic and Other Information Form, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-12), the COPE Inventory, and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). The Independent Samples T-Test, One Way Anova Test, Pearson Correlation, and Simple Linear Regression Analysis were used in data analysis. Results: The majority of the sample consisted of females (64.3%), single (56.2%) individuals having a medium level of income (67.5%), health insurance (90.4%), and had an average of 32.10±11.54 years of age. Besides, most of the the participants did not have a diagnosis of Covid-19 in their household (89%), did not lose someone to Covid-19 (85.2%), and in the household had noone in the risk group (84.3%) or someone over 65 years old (64.2%) or with chronic diseases (71.8%), and had his/her own personal space (85.9%). Our results showed that intolerance of uncertainty predicted non-functional coping attitudes; intolerance of uncertainty and non-functional coping attitudes predicted psychological symptoms. Besides, these variables were found to be related to certain sociodemographic features of the sample as well as attitudes toward the pandemic. Conclusion: It was understood that individuals with higher intolerance of uncertainty tended to have non-functional coping attitudes; and besides psychological symptoms were more common in individuals with high intolerance of uncertainty and non-functional coping attitudes during the Covid-19 pandemic. The individuals' perceptions towards the situation, intolerance of uncertainty, coping attitudes, and psychological factors all seem critical in the success of management strategies of pandemics. Keywords: Covid-19, Pandemic, Intolerance of Uncertainty, Coping Styles, Psychological Symptoms.