Uncertain world: How children's curiosity and intolerance of uncertainty relate to their behaviour and emotion under uncertainty
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View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Curious children feel happier when facing uncertainty. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in children may lead to safety-seeking behaviors, especially in older children, but did not directly link to increased information seeking or worry.
Area Of Science
- Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background
- Curiosity and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) are hypothesized to drive information seeking.
- Curiosity is linked to positive affect and learning, while IU is associated with negative affect and anxiety.
- The interplay of curiosity and IU in children's responses to uncertainty remains under-explored.
Purpose Of The Study
- To investigate the association between individual differences in parent-reported curiosity and IU with children's behavioral and emotional responses to uncertainty.
- To explore how these traits influence information-seeking behaviors and affective states in children aged 8-12.
Main Methods
- A cohort of 133 children (aged 8-12) participated in an information-seeking game involving uncertain outcomes (neutral/aversive sounds).
- Children's button presses (information seeking), self-reported emotions, worry levels, and facial expressions were recorded under varying uncertainty conditions.
- Parental reports of children's curiosity and IU were collected.
Main Results
- Children generally sought more information in high uncertainty conditions compared to low uncertainty.
- Higher curiosity in children correlated with reporting happier emotional states.
- No significant direct relationship was found between IU, curiosity, and the quantity of information sought or self-reported negative affect/worry.
- Exploratory findings suggested high IU children might engage in more checking or safety-seeking behaviors.
- An age-related effect indicated IU was more strongly associated with worry in older children under uncertainty.
Conclusions
- While curiosity is linked to positive affect in uncertain situations for children, IU's direct impact on information seeking quantity and negative affect is less clear.
- Children high in IU may exhibit specific types of information seeking (e.g., safety-seeking).
- The relationship between IU and worry appears to strengthen with age, highlighting developmental considerations in understanding uncertainty responses.
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