Exploring the Relationship Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Trust in Physicians from Spousal and Parent-Child Perspectives

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to probe the intergenerational transmission of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and trust in physicians. Besides, through the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), the predictive effect of parents’ IU on their own and their spouses’ trust in physicians was examined. A mediation model was further constructed to probe the mechanisms by which parents’ IU affects children’s trust in physicians. METHODS: The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12) and the Wake Forest Physician Trust Scale (WFPTS) were employed to conduct the questionnaire survey among 384 families (each family with a father, mother, and one child). RESULTS: IU and trust in physicians were found to be intergenerationally transmitted. The results of the APIM analyses showed that fathers’ total IUS-12 scores negatively predicted their own (β = −0.419, p < 0.01) and mothers’ (β = −0.235, p < 0.01) total WFPTS scores. Mothers’ total IUS-12 scores negatively predicted their own (β = −0.353, p < 0.01) and fathers’ (β = −0.138, p = 0.017) total WFPTS scores. The results of mediation analyses indicated that parents’ total WFPTS scores and children’s total IUS-12 scores mediated the effect of parents’ total IUS-12 scores on children’s total WFPTS scores. CONCLUSION: The public’s IU is a crucial influencing factor of their trust in physicians. Besides, the IU between couples and between parents and children could be mutually affected. On the one hand, husbands’ IU could affect their own and their wives’ trust in physicians, and vice versa. On the other hand, parents’ IU and trust in physicians could affect their children’s IU and trust in physicians, respectively.