Situational uncertainty interacts with anxiety sensitivity and distress intolerance to predict anticipated worry and preparation for a hurricane

ABSTRACT

Background

There is evidence for the impact of emotional intolerance on reactivity to stressors, but it is unknown whether the level of situational uncertainty may moderate this relationship. We examined whether situational uncertainty moderated the relationship between emotional intolerance and anticipated anxious responding to hurricane forecasts, considering three aspects of emotional tolerance: anxiety sensitivity, distress intolerance, and hurricane-specific distress intolerance.

Methods

Participants (N = 358) were Florida residents who experienced Hurricane Irma. Participants were presented with two hypothetical storm forecasts that varied in level of uncertainty: 5-day forecast (high uncertainty) and 3-day forecast (low uncertainty). Participants rated their anticipated worry and preparation for each forecast.

Results

Significant interactions between forecast uncertainty and both anxiety sensitivity and hurricane-specific distress intolerance emerged on anticipated worry, such that there was a stronger relationship in the high uncertainty condition. Forecast uncertainty also moderated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and anticipated preparation in the same direction. There were no significant interactions between forecast uncertainty and distress intolerance on either anticipated worry or preparation.

Conclusions

Specific aspects of emotional intolerance appear to have a stronger influence on anticipated worry and preparatory behavior in high uncertainty situations. These findings suggest that distinct emotional tolerance factors may influence these responses.

KEYWORDS:

• Worry
• situational uncertainty
• emotional intolerance
• anxiety sensitivity
• distress tolerance
• hurricane forecast

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, KT, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Miami CAS Hurricane Irma Seed Funding and the Hurricane Resilience Research Institute. Caitlin Stamatis is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH115882).