Fear of COVID-19, Intolerance of Uncertainty and Beliefs About Losing Control in the Post-Pandemic: A Network Analysis
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on mental health, as well as on the physical health of individuals. During the pandemic, various challenges emerged, and interventions were put in place, but research on fear of COVID-19and related mental health problems after the pandemic remains limited. The present study aims to explore the relationships between fear of COVID-19, intolerance of uncertainty, and beliefs about losing control in the post-pandemic. The study group of the research consisted of 268 participants, 183 (68.30%) of whom were women and 85 (31.70%) of whom were men and whose average age was 21.70 (SD = 2.31). Correlation analysis results showed that there were positive significant relationships between fear of COVID-19 and prospective anxiety and inhibitory anxiety, which are the dimensions of intolerance of uncertainty, and thoughts/behaviors/emotions and body/bodily functions, which are the dimensions of beliefs about losing control. However, there was no significant relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and the importance of the control dimension. According to the network analysis results, the thoughts/behaviors/emotions dimension has the most significant betweenness (1.630), closeness (1.453), and strength (1.156) scores. The findings were discussed, and some recommendations were provided.
Keywords
fear of COVID-19 , intolerance of uncertainty , beliefs about losing control , Network analysis
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