New Study Looks At Online Training To Improve Mental Health

A new study published in the Journal of Psychological Medicine looked at how a single session of online training can reduce intolerance of uncertainty and improve mental health in emerging adults.

“The study investigated whether we can train older adolescents and emerging adults to have the ability to cope with uncertainty,” study author Susanne Schweizer told us. “To make them more tolerant of uncertainty.”

The research team expected that promoting an uncertainty-as-adaptive mindset and reducing worry and rumination (repetitive negative thinking) about uncertainty would lead to improvements in how well individuals would be able to tolerate uncertainty. They also theorized that improved uncertainty tolerance in turn would have down-stream benefits on individuals’ mental health.

“We know that emerging adults today have or are facing great climate, health, social and economic uncertainty,” Schweizer told us. “We also know that intolerance of uncertainty is a risk factor for several mental health conditions including depression and anxiety disorders. Reducing intolerance of uncertainty can therefore support emerging adults as they face every day uncertainties.”

The researchers set about testing their predictions by comparing the group who completed their uncertainty training to a group that completed a psychoeducation training and a no-training control group.

The uncertainty training showed large improvements in tolerance of uncertainty across a three month period, and those improvements were associated with reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety.

“We were very pleased at how long the benefits to tolerance of uncertainty were maintained, as well as the finding that the benefits in mental health were accounted for specifically by this reduction in intolerance of uncertainty,” Schweizer told us. “We are testing to see whether we can replicated these findings. This is a very exciting and promising avenue for prevention, as it is at no financial cost to individuals and a very minimal time investment for them. We are also looking to tailor the training for specific populations who face great uncertainty (e.g., new parents).”