Associations of resilience and hope with mental and physical health among firefighters. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • OBJECTIVE: Firefighters represent an understudied population with high rates of chronic exposure to stress and potentially traumatic events. Thus, there is a need to identify modifiable resilience factors to address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (PTSD) and chronic pain in firefighters to inform prevention and intervention efforts. METHODS: The current sample included 155 firefighters (93.5% male; Mage =42.2, SD=9.8) recruited online from career, volunteer, and combination (i.e., volunteer and career) departments in a large metropolitan area in the southern United States. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the associations between/among resilience and hope on PTSD symptoms, chronic pain, well-being, and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Resilience had a stronger, negative relationship with PTSD and chronic pain compared to hope, while hope had a stronger, positive relationship with PTG and well-being compared to resilience. Hope and resilience combined predicted 10%-33% of the variance in the outcomes. CONCLUSION: The current findings may provide evidence to promote interventions that increase resilience and hope in firefighters.

published proceedings

  • J Clin Psychol

author list (cited authors)

  • Senger, A. R., McGrew, S. J., Gallagher, M. W., & Vujanovic, A.

citation count

  • 2

complete list of authors

  • Senger, Amy R||McGrew, Shelby J||Gallagher, Matthew W||Vujanovic, Anka

publication date

  • September 2023

publisher