Intolerance of uncertainty, rumination, post-traumatic stress symptoms and aggression during COVID-19: a serial mediation model

Figures & data

Figure 1. Illustration of the hypothetical serial mediation model. IU, intolerance of uncertainty; PTSS, post-traumatic stress symptoms

Table 1. Factor loadings, internal consistency values, and item frequencies of cumulative factors on the COVID-19 stressors checklist

Item	Health stressors	Socioeconomic stressors	Answered yes
			n	%
1. Have you been diagnosed or followed up with the suspicion of the COVID-19 virus?	0.658	−0.032	74	10.4
2. Has someone close to you been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus?	0.746	0.057	286	40.1
3. Has someone close to you died because of the COVID-19 virus?	0.635	0.157	49	6.9
4. Did you have any serious financial difficulties which affect your family functioning in the COVID-19 pandemic?	0.058	0.745	308	43.1
5. Has anyone in your family lost his/her job during the COVID-19 pandemic?	−0.025	0.714	115	16.1
6. Did you have to work under unhealthy conditions without any precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic?	0.044	0.343	78	10.9
7. Have you ever been unable to get social support from people around you when you needed it in the COVID-19 pandemic?	0.094	0.606	238	33.3
Eigenvalues	1.837	1.270
Cronbach’s alpha	0.63	0.71	N = 714

Table 2. Means (M), standard deviations (SD), and correlations among the study variables (N = 714)

Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. IU	38.72	9.05	–	0.593**	0.388**	0.260**	0.041	0.123*
2. Rumination	89.16	25.79	–	–	0.381**	0.387**	−0.001	0.146**
3. PTSS	15.40	4.57	–	–	–	0.275**	−0.030	0.169**
4. Aggression	21.48	7.90	–	–	–	–	0.033	0.231**
5. Health	5.40	0.77	–	–	–	–	–	0.076*
6. Social–economic	8.71	1.26	–	–	–	–	–	–

IU, intolerance of uncertainty; PTSS, post-traumatic stress symptoms; Health, health factors of COVID-19; social–economic, social and economic factors of COVID-19.

*p < 0.01, **p < 0.001.

Figure 2. Illustration of the indirect effects of serial mediation model with unstandardized coefficients. IU, intolerance of uncertainty; a₁, direct effect of intolerance of uncertainty on rumination; a₂, direct effect of intolerance of uncertainty on post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS); a₃, direct effect of rumination on PTSS; b₁, direct effect of rumination on aggression; b₂, direct effect of PTSS on aggression; c, total indirect effect of intolerance of uncertainty on aggression, c’, direct effect of intolerance of uncertainty on aggression. ***p < 0.001

Table 3. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), rumination, post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and aggression: testing a serial mediation model

Model pathway	Estimate	SE	t	p	95% CI
					LL	UL
IU → Rumination	1.668	0.08	19.483	< 0.001***	1.500	1.836
IU → PTSS	0.225	0.03	6.038	< 0.001***	0.152	0.299
Rumination → PTSS	0.067	0.01	5.112	< 0.001***	0.417	0.936
Rumination → Aggression	0.943	0.01	7.117	< 0.001***	0.683	0.120
PTSS → Aggression	0.122	0.04	3.299	< 0.001***	0.493	0.194
Total model effect	0.214	0.03	6.863	< 0.001***	0.152	0.274
Direct effect	0.015	0.04	0.405	0.686	−0.580	0.089
Total indirect effect	0.198	0.02			0.154	0.247
IU → Rumination → Aggression	0.157	0.02			0.113	0.206
IU → PTSS → Aggression	0.027	0.01			0.009	0.049
IU → Rumination → PTSS → Aggression	0.014	0.01			0.005	0.025

CI, confidence interval; LL, lower limit; UL, upper limit.

***p < 0.001. Bootstrap sample size = 5000.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/TPA6U.