I’m happy to share that my first dissertation study, “Can intolerance of uncertainty & anxiety impact the lives we lead? Understanding lived experiences of people with chronic physical health and pain conditions,” has been published open access in the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology 🎉
This project is especially meaningful to me. It brought together individuals living with chronic health and pain conditions to explore how intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety shape everyday life. Using a mixed-methods design allowed us to capture both the depth and complexity of these lived experiences.
✨Highlights from Our Findings:
• Higher acceptance of illness and greater perceived social support were associated with lower IU and anxiety among individuals with CPHPCs
• Higher IU and anxiety were also linked to lower quality of life across multiple domains.
• Our reflexive thematic analysis identified four primary themes:
1. Distressing contexts characterized by uncertainty are not limited to health scenarios and require management in diverse ways
2. Interference of CPHPC affects multiple domains of life beyond physical health
3. Navigating uncertainty for a chronic period changes coping abilities and identity development
4. Responsivity to uncertainty is a multifaceted cognitive-behavioural and emotional-physiological response that hinders or promotes coping.
We discuss how IU plays an important contextual role in CPHPCs and shows promise as a transdiagnostic target for early prevention and intervention. Therapeutic approaches that acknowledge health-related cues and support building comfort with uncertainty may offer a more supportive trajectory for those living with these conditions.
📖 To read more, you can access the full paper here:
https://lnkd.in/eu32-mXy
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this work, especially those who shared their lived experiences!