Relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellness: a cross-cultural examination

ABSTRACTThe majority of research on mental wellness has been focused on Western societies, while little is known about cross-cultural differences of mental wellness and factors associating with mental wellness. The present cross-cultural research examined the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and mental wellness among groups recruited from the United States (US), Mexico, and China. A total of 1,198 participants (359 from the US, 432 from Mexico, 407 from China; 55.50% female, 44.50% male) completed the survey study. The moderation effect of country of membership in the relationship between IU-depressive symptoms/life satisfaction was investigated through PROCESS Model 1. Our results revealed that country of membership did not moderate the relationship between IU and depressive symptoms, indicating that the IU-depressive symptom link is culturally invariant. On the other hand, country of membership statistically significantly moderated the relationship between IU and life satisfaction (p < .001, R2 = .10). Specifically, greater IU was inversely associated with life satisfaction amongst US and Mexican individuals, but not for Chinese individuals. Findings suggest cross-cultural variations in the relationship between IU and life satisfaction. Implications, limitations, and future directions were offered.KEYWORDS: Intolerance of uncertaintymental wellnessdepressive symptomslife satisfactioncross-cultural research Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).