Resumen

RODRIGUEZ DE BEHRENDS, Marisa  y  BRENLLA, María Elena. Adaptation to Buenos Aires of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2015, vol.32, n.2, pp.261-274. ISSN 1668-7027.

The purpose of this paper is to report as regards the linguistic and cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS, for its acronyms in English) in the adult population of Buenos Aires (Republica Argentina). The IUS assesses the intolerance of uncertainty (IU), which is one of the principal components of the generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) according to the theoretical model of Dugas. IU has been defined as a dispositional characteristic that results from a set of negative beliefs about uncertainty and it has been proposed as a cognitive vulnerability factor for worry and GAD. Furthermore it may be defined more specifically as the excessive tendency of an individual to consider it unacceptable that a negative event may occur, however small the probability of its occurrence. In general, intolerance of uncertainty may be conceptualized as the way an individual perceives information in uncertain situations and responds to said information with a set of emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses. The IUS is composed of 27 items related to the idea that uncertainty is unacceptable, leads to frustration and the inability to take action and it reflected badly on a person. Participants rate items on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1: not at all characteristic of me to 5: entirely characteristic of me. Higher scores on the IUS indicate greater intolerance of uncertainty. The original French version of the IUS was developed in 1994 to assess emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to ambiguous situations, implications of being uncertain, and attempts to control the future. In 2002, the IUS was translated from French to English. Similar to the original French measure, the English translation had shown excellent internal consistency and temporal stability. It has demonstrated convergent, criterial, and discriminant validity. On this study, the IUS translated into Spanish by three independent translators. The content validity was assessed through the use of three independent judges who had broad knowledge of anxiety disorder. The preliminary version was tested with a sample of 90 participants. The research was a descriptive and correlational study, with a transversal design The participants completed the following questionnaires: the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Data obtained from a sample of 320 participants (168 females and 152 males) of the Ciudad and Provincia de Buenos Aires has been analyzed. Data analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) - Version 22 software. In relation to the evidence of validity, significant correlations were obtained with worry (r = .44; p = .000) and anxiety as a state (r = .36; p = .000) and trait (r = .58; p = .000). The exploratory data analysis regarding the factor structure of the scale and dimensions of the construct indicated two factors that explain 41.07 % of the total variance. On the one hand, concerning the consistency of this scale, the results show an excellent internal consistency (.93) and a fairly strong test-retest reliability over a five-week period of .47. On the other hand, significant differences were not registered in the punctuations of the scale according to age and sex, and these findings are consistent with previous research. As a whole, the results obtained from the present investigation are consistent with the findings of previous investigations. Given that the IU constitutes a factor of vulnerability for the TAG, it is useful to rely on a questionnaire adapted to the local population. To conclude, the present study has demonstrated the sound psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the IUS.

Palabras clave : Intolerance of uncertainty; Generalized anxiety disorder; Argentinean adaptation; Assessment; Reliability; Validity.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )