Associations of resilience and hope with mental and physical health among firefighters.

Abstract

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. 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. 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. The current findings may provide evidence to promote interventions that increase resilience and hope in firefighters.