Variable Details

Available Studies

MAP, LATC

Scaled? 

Not Scaled

Variable Type 

Cross-Sectional

Variable Name 

hafearuncetainty

Categories

Affect and Personality

Fear of uncertainty
Harm avoidance subscale: Fear of uncertainty - Sum of 7 items

This variable is only available in MAP and LATC.

Fear of uncertainty is measured using the 7-item fear of uncertainty subscale of the harm avoidance scale. The harm avoidance scale comes from the Temperament and Character Inventory and consists of four subscales: anticipatory worry, fear of uncertainty, shyness, and fatigability.

Participants are asked to respond true/mostly true or false/mostly false to each item. The score for this subscale ranges from 0 to 7 and is the number of item responses indicative of the trait. Higher scores indicate greater fear of uncertainty.

Participants are presented the following items:

Item no.ItemCoding
1I often feel intense and worried in unfamiliar situations, even when others feel there is little to worry about.True = 1
2I often feel tense and worried in unfamiliar situations, even when others feel there is no danger at all.True = 1
3I usually feel tense and worried when I have to do something new and unfamiliar.True = 1
4Most of the time I would prefer to do something a little risky (like riding in an automobile over steep hills and sharp turns) rather than having to stay quiet and inactive for a few hours.False = 1
5I usually stay calm and secure in situations that most people would find physically dangerous.False = 1
6Most of the time I would prefer to do something risky (like hang-gliding or parachute jumping) rather than having to stay quiet and inactive for a few hours.False = 1
7I am usually confident that I can easily do things that most people consider dangerous (such as driving an automobile fast on a wet or icy road.False = 1

Response choices for each item:

CodingResponse
TrueTrue or mostly true
FalseFalse of mostly false

Note: The subscale score is calculated if at least 75% of the items are non-missing. Missing values (when less than 25%) are assigned the average item score of the non-missing items.


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