The current pandemic wave of COVID-19 has resulted in significant uncertainty for the general public. Mental health and examining factors that may influence distress have been outlined as key research priorities to inform interventions. This research sought to examine whether intolerance of uncertainty and coping responses influence the degree of distress experienced by the U.K. general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a cross-sectional online questionnaire design, participants were recruited (N = 842) using snowball sampling over a 10-day period in the early "lockdown" phase of the pandemic. Around a quarter of participants demonstrated significantly elevated anxiety and depression, with 14.8% reaching clinical cutoff for health anxiety. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance indicated those in "vulnerable" groups were significantly more anxious (p < .001), and also more anxious in relation to their health (p < .001). Mediation modeling demonstrated maladaptive coping responses partially mediated the predictive relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and psychological distress. Mental health difficulties have become significantly raised during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, particularly for the vulnerable. Findings support emerging research suggesting the general public is struggling with uncertainty, more so than normal. Vulnerable groups are more anxious about their health, but not more intolerant of uncertainty than the nonvulnerable. Finally, this study indicated two modifiable factors that could act as treatment targets when adapting interventions for mental health during the COVID-19 global health crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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应对和容忍不确定性：COVID-19 大流行期间心理健康的预测因素和中介因素。

当前的 COVID-19 大流行浪潮给公众带来了巨大的不确定性。心理健康和检查可能影响痛苦的因素已被列为干预措施的关键研究重点。这项研究旨在检验对不确定性的不容忍和应对措施是否会影响英国公众在 COVID-19 大流行期间所经历的痛苦程度。使用横断面在线问卷设计，在大流行的早期“锁定”阶段，在 10 天内使用滚雪球抽样招募了参与者（N = 842）。大约四分之一的参与者表现出显着升高的焦虑和抑郁，其中 14.8% 达到了健康焦虑的临床临界值。方差的单向多元分析表明那些处于“弱势” 组明显更焦虑 (p < .001)，并且在健康方面也更焦虑 (p < .001)。中介模型表明，适应不良的应对反应在一定程度上调节了对不确定性的不容忍和心理困扰之间的预测关系。在英国第一波 COVID-19 大流行期间，心理健康困难显着增加，特别是对于弱势群体。调查结果支持新兴研究，表明公众正在与不确定性作斗争，比正常情况更严重。弱势群体对自己的健康更加焦虑，但与非弱势群体相比，对不确定性的容忍度并不高。最后，这项研究表明，在 COVID-19 全球健康危机期间，在调整心理健康干预措施时，有两个可修改的因素可以作为治疗目标。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。