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551558
Intolerance of Uncertainty and Worry: Investigating
Specicity in a Nonclinical Sample
Michel J. Dugas,
1,3
Patrick Gosselin,
2
and Robert Ladouceur
2
The goal of this study was to explore the specicity of the relationship between
intolerance of uncertainty and worry in a nonclinical sample. Three hundred and
forty-seven university students completed measures of worry, obsessions/compul-
sions, and panic sensations. They also completed measures of process variables known
to be associated with worry (intolerance of uncertainty), obsessions/compulsions
(responsibility), and panic sensations (anxiety sensitivity). The results show that
intolerance of uncertainty was highly related to worry, moderately related to
obsessions/compulsions, and weakly related to panic sensations. Further, the relation-
ship between intolerance of uncertainty and worry remained strong after shared
variance with other study variables was removed. The ndings are discussed in terms
of their implications for understanding worry and preventing generalized anxiety dis-
order.
KEY WORDS: intolerance of uncertainty; worry, specicity; generalized anxiety disorder.
Worry is a fundamental human experience and is common in both nonclinical
and clinical individuals. Tallis, Davey, and Capuzzo (1994) found that 38% of
their nonclinical sample worried at least once a day. From a clinical perspective,
pathological worry is the hallmark of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and an
associated feature in many anxiety and mood disorders (American Psychiatric
Association, 1994). MacLeod, Williams, and Bekerian (1991) proposed a denition
of worry that includes the common features of other denitions (e.g., Barlow, 1988;
Borkovec, Robinson, Pruzinsky, & DePree, 1983). They suggested that Worry is a
cognitive phenomenon, it is concerned with future events where there is uncertainty
about the outcome, the future being thought about is a negative one, and this is
accompanied by feelings of anxiety (p. 478). This denition underscores the central
role of uncertainty about future events, which is not surprising as many researchers
1
Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
2
E