Post-traumatic stress, cognitive fusion, and intolerance of uncertainty as longitudinal predictors of post-traumatic growth from the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant stressor that posed threats to life and ways of living. The harmful psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been well documented, but positive psychological changes can also follow significant stressors. These changes are referred to as post-traumatic growth (PTG). The present study explored how PTG may develop from a contextual behavioral science perspective. Intolerance of uncertainty and cognitive fusion were longitudinally examined as predictors of PTG from the COVID-19 pandemic in a national United States sample. Self-report data were collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers (MTurk) at three time points between April and November of 2020 as part of a larger study. Results indicated that higher levels of PTS, higher intolerance of uncertainty, and lower cognitive fusion in April 2020 each predicted greater PTG in June 2020 but did not predict change in PTG the next four months. Intolerance of uncertainty and cognitive fusion interacted to predict PTG from June to November with intolerance of uncertainty predicting more growth when cognitive fusion was high and less growth when cognitive fusion was low. Cognitive fusion and intolerance of uncertainty were thus found to be significant predictors of PTG that interacted with each other and varied as a function of time. Explanations for their involvement in the development of PTG across time are offered. • Greater post-traumatic stress predicted more post-traumatic growth two months later. • Greater intolerance of uncertainty predicted more post-traumatic growth two months later. • Greater cognitive fusion predicted less post-traumatic growth two months later. • Fusing to thoughts of uncertainty may contribute to post-traumatic growth.