University Students’ Intolerance of Uncertainty and Psychological Well-Being in an Uncertain Time from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Keywords:
well-being, covid-19, uncertainty, VUCA worldAbstract
This study aimed at examining the intolerance of uncertainty and psychological well-being of university students, and at investigating to what degree these two variables are interrelated. The participants consisted of 584 university students, who voluntarily responded to an online questionnaire. The instruments for data collection included the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale – Short Form (IUS-12) and the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being (RSPWB). The RSPWB assessed six dimensions: self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relationships with other people, environmental mastery, and autonomy. The statistics used to analyze the data consisted of means, standard deviations, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results showed that the mean sum score of the intolerance of uncertainty had been at a ‘moderate’ level. The psychological well-being of the participants was found to be at a ‘high’ level. When considering each dimension of psychological well-being, it was found that the mean sum scores for self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relationships with other people and environmental mastery had all been at ‘high’ levels, while the score for autonomy was at a ‘moderate’ level. Additionally, intolerance of uncertainty was negatively correlated with psychological well-being at a statistically significant level of .01. Only purpose in life dimension of psychological well-being was found to correlate negatively with prospective intolerance of uncertainty at a statistically significant level of .05. The findings of this study provide insight into the roles of the students’ mental health, particularly during a pandemic caused by a new disease and in a VUCA world.
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