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Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), defined as the dispositional interpretation of uncertain or ambiguous events as stressful and problematic, has been linked to excessive worry and other anxiety-related problems in adults and youth. IU has been conceptualized as a vulnerability factor for excessive worry and anxiety, but the historical absence of a supported measure of IU in young children has hampered longitudinal research needed to evaluate temporal relationships between IU and anxiety and the differential developmental pathways of IU leading to different anxiety disorders and depression. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of a newly developed 17-item parent-report measure of younger children's Responses to Uncertainty and Low Environmental Structure (i.e., the RULES questionnaire). We examined the preliminary structure, reliability, and validity of the RULES within a treatment-seeking sample of children aged 3-10 (N=160) with anxiety. Findings from an exploratory factor analysis supported a one-factor model that retained all 17 items. The RULES demonstrated strong internal consistency, and predictive, convergent, and divergent validity. In this early childhood sample, the RULES also showed stronger associations with anxiety than did a previously supported measure of IU developed for older youth, and showed preliminary sensitivity to treatment-related change. Findings provide preliminary psychometric support for the RULES as a parent-report measure of children's responses to uncertainty and low environmental structure that may inform etiologic models of anxiety.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a dispositional negative orientation toward uncertainty and its consequences, has been studied in adults, but research has only recently examined IU in youth. Despite some advances, little is known about the factor structure of measures of IU in youth. The present study used confirmatory factor analysis to examine the structure of IU as measured by the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale for Children (IUSC; Comer et al., 2009) in a sample of youth (N=368) 9-18 years of age (Mage=12.47) with and without anxiety disorders and their mothers. Findings demonstrated multiple acceptable factor structures: a correlated factors 2-factor structure and a bifactor model where a general factor underlies all items. While the bifactor model provides better fit and reliability to the data, multivariate analyses indicated that the 2-factor structure distinguishes apprehensive anxiety regarding future events (prospective IU) from present-focused inhibition of behavior due to uncertainty and negative reactions to the presence of uncertainty (inhibitory IU); a total IU score predicted all anxiety domains for self- and parent-reports except for parent-report harm avoidance. Findings are discussed in terms of consistency of IU across adult and youth samples, and how results can inform treatment efforts and etiologic models of IU and anxiety.