Coping responses and posttraumatic stress symptomatology in urban fire service personnel

• Published in: Journal of traumatic stress 1999-04, Vol.12 (2), p.293-308
• Main Authors: Beaton, Randal, Murphy, Shirley, Johnson, Clark, Pike, Ken, Corneil, Wayne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Allied Health Personnel; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; Coping; coping strategies; duty-related incident exposures; emergency workers; Fire Fighters; Fires; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Measures (Instruments); Medical sciences; Occupational Diseases - diagnosis; Occupational Exposure - adverse effects; Post-traumatic stress disorder; posttraumatic stress; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Rescue Work; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Time Factors; Urban Population
• ISSN: 0894-9867; 1573-6598
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1024776509667

Emergency workers, including urban fire fighters and paramedics, must cope with a variety of duty‐related stressors including traumatic incident exposures. Little is known about coping responses of emergency workers or whether their coping responses predict future mental health outcomes. The previously formulated Coping Responses of Rescue Workers Inventory (CRRWI) underwent a principal components analysis employing a sample (N = 220) of urban fire fighters and paramedics. Six empirically and theoretically distinct CRRWI components were identified which were relatively stable over a 6‐month period. Scores on one of the CRRWI scales, but neither years of service nor their past half year's traumatic incident exposures, predicted future changes in self‐reports of posttraumatic stress symptomatology.