This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1534765608323441v1 15/1/75    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wagner, S. L. Articles by Martin, C. A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Effects of Traumatic Stress on Firefighters' World Assumptions

University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, wagners{at}unbc.ca

Juanita A. McFee

University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

Crystal A. Martin

University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

Male firefighters (n = 94) were compared with male workers (n = 91) from a variety of blue-collar, non—emergency service occupations. Responses on the World Assumptions Scale were examined in combination with the Impact of Events Scale—Revised and the Symptom Checklist-90. Initial hypotheses suggested that firefighters would report disrupted world assumptions and that these disrupted assumptions would be linked with greater mental health symptomatology. Results revealed that firefighters were not different from controls on world assumptions and that world assumptions were unrelated to years of service. These results suggest that the psychological reactions of workers exposed to high levels of job-related traumatic stress may not be consistent with that described in previous literature regarding primary victims. Consequently, it is suggested that more research is needed that specifically addresses psychological outcomes for firefighters and other high-trauma occupations. The findings also suggest that benevolence may be particularly important in relation to mental health in firefighters and that this belief may be useful in the prevention of posttraumatic symptomatology.

Key Words: traumatic exposure • world assumptions • critical incident stress • posttraumatic stress disorder • mental health • firefighters • prevention • benevolence • self-worth • just world

This version was published on March 1, 2009

Traumatology, Vol. 15, No. 1, 75-84 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1534765608323441


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?