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Abstract
<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" id="d1555423e71">Racism
increases the amount of uncertainty in daily life, which may differentially
affect the mental health of individuals from racial minority groups who score high
on trait intolerance of uncertainty (IU), or the tendency to experience uncertainty
as highly aversive. We examined associations between trait IU and current symptoms
of common mental disorders in community samples of Black (N = 125) and White (N = 125)
adults ages 18-55 who were matched on age, gender, and educational attainment. Given
that data were collected between 2017 and 2021, we also examined pandemic exposure
as a moderator of these associations. No mean differences emerged between Black and
White adults on trait IU measured with the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 or
on current psychiatric symptoms assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for
DSM-5. Trait IU was more strongly associated with current psychiatric symptoms in
Black than White adults, a racial difference that dissipated following pandemic exposure.
Present results extend prior work by suggesting the dispositional tendency to find
uncertainty aversive is a stronger predictor of mental health symptoms in Black than
White adults outside the context of pandemic-related stress. Implications of these
findings for understanding the impact of racial- and pandemic-related environmental
uncertainty on mental health is discussed.
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