Depression and anxiety were included in the regression
models as covariates because they are likely to confound the association of the predictors of interest (i.e., social environment) with uncertainty. Depression and anxiety have consistently been associated with uncertainty [4–9], with depression and anxiety typically considered to be outcomes of higher uncertainty. Depression and anxiety are likely also associated with measures of the social environment. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [33]. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was designed for use with medical patients; as such, items focus on mood disturbance rather than physical symptoms that could be attributed to chronic illness.
The HADS subscales for depression and anxiety each have seven items that are answered on a four-point scale, and subscale scores range from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating more symptoms of depression and anxiety. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.82 for depression and 0.86 for anxiety in the current sample.