Investigating the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty, psychological flexibility and worry in university graduate young adults

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the levels of worry, intolerance of uncertainty and psychological flexibility of university graduate young adults with demographic variables and to test the prediction of worry levels of university graduate young adults in terms of demographic variables, intolerance of uncertainty and psychological flexibility with hierarchical regression analysis. The sample of this research, which was carried out with the relational reseach method, consists of a total of 425 young adult individuals (339 females, 86 males) who graduated from Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University in 2019 and 2020. The data of the study were obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic via Demographic Information Form, Penn State Worry Questionarie, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, and Acceptance and Action Questionaire-II. The data obtained from the research were analyzed with the SPSS 26.0 program. While the worry levels of university graduate young adult individuals differ significantly according to gender and family monthly income they do not differ significantly according to age and active working status. Moreover, only the level of psychological flexibility of participants significantly differed based on their monthly family income. In addition, when the bilateral relations between the research variables were examined, it was seen that all three variables had a highly significant relationship with each other. Finally, as a result of hierarchical regression analysis with a three-stage model, gender, intolerance of uncertainty and psychological flexibility significantly predicted the worry levels of the participants. Among these variables, intolerance of uncertainty accounted for 39.5% variance in worry. Finally, the findings obtained from the research were discussed and interpreted in the light of the information in the literature, and suggestions for researchers and practitioners were presented for future studies. KEYWORDS: Worry, Intolerance of Uncertainty, Psychological Flexibility, Young Adult, COVID-19