INTOLERANCE OF UNCERTAINTY, ANXIETY & AUTISTIC TRAITS: TEMPORARY EXPERIMENTAL INDUCTION OF IU AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH HIGHER AND LOWER AUTISTIC TRAITS

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Autistic people and non-autistic people with higher autistic traits (ATs) often experience greater anxiety. Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) has been evidenced in many cross-sectional, correlational studies as an important mechanism underlying that relationship. This study presents an adapted experimental procedure and examines the mediational properties of IU on ATs and anxiety. Methods. 206 students were screened and 48 students (25 higher ATs; 23 lower ATs) participated in the lab visit. These students imagined an uncertain, negative event (T1) and read some statements designed to experimentally induce (T2) and then reduce IU (T3). State- IU and state-anxiety were measured at each timepoint (T1;T2;T3). Results. Students with higher ATs reported greater state-anxiety, which was fully mediated by greater state-IU at T1. The IU-induction procedure failed to induce IU, but the IU-reduction procedure was effective. ATs grouping (higher vs lower ATs) did not moderate the relationship between decreases in state-IU and state-anxiety (T2-T3). Discussion. The study provides provisional experimental support for the mediational role of IU for ATs and anxiety in a non-clinical sample. It was also the first study to explicitly show that ATs grouping did not influence the extent to which decreases in state-IU led to decreases in state-anxiety.