Abstract

Health anxiety has received relatively less empirical attention than other anxiety domains. However, identifying the psycho- logical factors that contribute to its development and maintenance is essential, considering its relatively high prevalence in the general population. This study examined the distinct mediating effects of the three dimensions of health locus of control (HLC), internal (IHLC), powerful others (PHLC), and chance (CHLC) in the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and health anxiety. A total of 180 Korean adults completed self-report measures assessing IU, HLC, and health anxiety. Parallel mediation analyses using bootstrapping showed that IU significantly predicted health anxiety. Only PHLC mediated this relationship, whereas neither IHLC nor CHLC showed a significant mediating effect. These findings suggest that indi- viduals who attribute their health outcomes to powerful others may experience greater anxiety when faced with uncertainty while those who endorse internal or chance control beliefs tend to exhibit more protective or mixed response patterns. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing each dimension of HLC when explaining individual differences in health- related anxiety and suggest that cultural context should be considered when interpreting the contributions of these dimen- sions in future research.