ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1628451
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its OutcomesView all 115 articles
Type D Personality and Fear of Progression Among Patients with First-Ever Stroke: The Serial Mediation Role of Perceived Social Support and Intolerance of Uncertainty
Provisionally accepted
Xiaoping Yang1*
Lijun Wang2Xiaohui Liu2*Miaomiao Chen2Yingjie Zheng2Shailing Ma2Jialin Yuan2
Huijuan Wang2- 1宁夏医科大学总医院, Yinchuan, China
- 2School of Nursing, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
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Objective: Fear of progression (FoP) significantly impacts multidimensional health outcomes in stroke patients. Although Type D personality predicts FoP, mechanisms underlying the association between Type D personality and FoP remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the impact of Type D personality on FoP in first-ever stroke patients and the serial mediation role of perceived social support (PSS) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU). Methods: This cross-sectional study employed convenience sampling to recruit 300 patients with first-ever stroke (228 males and 72 females; mean age 59.52 ± 12.72 years) from two tertiary hospitals in Yinchuan, China. Participants completed the following scales: the General Information Questionnaire, the 14-item Type D scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12, and the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form. SPSS 24.0 was used for Harman's single-factor test, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and regression analysis, with serial mediation role examined using the PROCESS macro v3.5. Results: Our results showed that: (1) The direct effect of Type D personality on FoP was significant. ( 2) PSS did not independently mediate the Type D personality-FoP relationship. (3) IU significantly mediated the Type D personality-FoP relationship. (4) PSS and IU demonstrated the significant serial mediation role between Type D personality and FoP. Conclusions:Type D personality exerted a direct effect on FoP among first-ever stroke patients. The serial mediation model demonstrated that enhancing PSS could reduce IU, thereby alleviating FoP. Interventions targeting PSS enhancement and IU reduction constitute a promising approach to mitigate FoP in these patients, despite Type D traits' inherent stability.
Keywords: Stroke, Type D personality, perceived social support, Intolerance of Uncertainty, Fear of progression, serial mediation role
Received: 14 May 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Wang, Liu, Chen, Zheng, Ma, Yuan and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaoping Yang, 宁夏医科大学总医院, Yinchuan, China
Xiaohui Liu, School of Nursing, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
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