Examination of the relationships between generalized anxiety disorder symptoms and family unpredictability, emotion regulation and intolerance of uncertainty

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a problem characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between GAD symptoms and family unpredictability, emotion regulation, and intolerance of uncertainty. The sample consists of 380 women (71.3%) and 153 men (28.7%) between the ages of 18-65 (N=533). The mean age of the participants was 30.11 (SD=10.55). The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, The Resrospective Family Unpredictability Scale, Emotion Regulation Skills Questionnaire-Emotion Spesific, Emotion Regulation Skills Questionnaire, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale and Beck Depression Inventory are used. According to the results of the correlation analyzes, there are positive and significant relationships between GAD symptoms, worry and depression symptoms. It is concluded that the relationship between family unpredictability and GAD symptoms are valid for family unpredictability total score, meal, mom discipline and dad discipline. However, there is no relationship between financial unpredictability, mom nurturance, dad nurturance and GAD symptoms. While there are positive relationships between GAD symptoms and negative emotions, there were negative relationships between positive emotions and GAD symptoms. Results of one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (ANOVA) shows that the upper-symptom and sub-symptom groups differs in terms of emotion patterns. In addition to the negative relationship between GAD symptoms and general emotion regulation skills, it is concluded that there are negative relationships between specific emotion regulation skills such as anxiety and joy and GAD symptoms. Finally, there is a positive relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and GAD symptoms. The results of the mediation analyzes shows that emotion regulation skills and intolerance to uncertainty play a mediating role in the relationship between family unpredictability and GAD symptoms. The results are discussed in the light of the relevant literature.