The mediating role of coping with stress situations in the relationship between perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty among university students

The aim of this study is two-fold: (a) to examine whether the level of intolerance of uncertainty differs in relation to gender and whether the level of perfectionism changes considering perceived parental attitudes among university students; (b) identify the mediator role of coping with stress (task-oriented, emotional, and avoidant coping) in terms of the relationship between perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty. A total of 647 university students consisting of 462 female and 185 male participated in the study. Employing the correlational research methods, Demographic Information Form, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Short Form of the Big Three Perfectionism Scale and Inventory for Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations Short Form were used as data collection tools. SPSS 25.0, JASP 0.17.1.0 and JAMOVI 2.3.26 software were used for the analysis of the data. Welch Test was used to examine the relationship between gender and level of intolerance to uncertainty. One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to decipher the relationship between parental attitudes and perfectionism level. The mediator role of coping with stress in the relationship between perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty was tested with the priorly formed mediation model. The results showed that intolerance of uncertainty did not differ significantly considering the gender variable, while the level of perfectionism differed significantly in terms of perceived parental attitudes. Examining the results of the model created in the research, it was revealed that perfectionism and emotional coping predicted intolerance of uncertainty positively, while perfectionism was found to predict emotional coping positively and significantly. Emotional coping was found to have a partial mediating role in the relationship between perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty. Further, task-oriented and avoidant coping methods did not have a mediating role.