Intolerance of uncertainty predicts storm fears

Abstract

Severe storms present challenges and risks to global mental health. To address these risks, underlying vulnerability factors should be considered. For example, storms often cause fear by presenting unpredictable or uncertain situations, which may be particularly distressful for individuals who experience broad intolerance of uncertainty. This is especially salient for those who experience disproportionate and uncontrollable fears and anxiety. For those high in intolerance of uncertainty, fears regarding storms could be more likely or more extreme, leading to increased distress in the event or anticipation of storms. This study investigates the possibility of uncertainty intolerance as a predictive factor for storm fears. Storm fears were assessed in severity using the Storm Fear Questionnaire (SFQ), and intolerance of uncertainty is measured using the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS). Results of a linear regression model indicated that intolerance of uncertainty is a significant predictor of storm fears. This replicates previous literature implicating a relationship between broad intolerance of uncertainty and storm fears, and also contributes to broader literature implicating intolerance of uncertainty as a transdiagnostic factor across anxiety-related disorders. As a result of global climate change, severe weather events continue to grow more extreme and more common. As such, mental health risks related to severe weather events are increasingly important to understand. Intolerance of uncertainty has previously been identified as a risk factor in anxiety and related disorders (Eysenck, 1997) as well as weather-related trauma (Pardue, 2018). The present study serves to bridge a literature gap by linking intolerance of uncertainty to storm fear specifically.