Mental health implications of fire service membership.

Abstract

The primary goal of the current study was to add to the literature regarding mental health implications of fire service membership. Paid-professional firefighters (n = 94) were compared with workers from non-emergency-service occupations (n = 91) with respect to posttraumatic symptomatology as well as other symptoms of mental illness. The results suggested that firefighters self-reported greater posttraumatic symptomatology than comparison participants as measured by the Impact of Events Scale—Revised. In addition, the firefighters reported more distress on several subscales of the Symptom Checklist 90—Revised. Specifically, firefighters scored higher than the non-emergency-service participants on self-reported interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, hostility, and psychoticism. Contrary to the original hypotheses, no links were evident between years of service and posttraumatic/mental health symptoms. Overall, this project suggests that firefighters are at substantially higher risk for traumatic stress symptoms as compared with other workers who do not work within the emergency services. In addition, it is suggested that previous reports of additional mental health symptoms experienced by firefighters may actually be more consistent with secondary reports of posttraumatic symptomatology. A secondary goal of this study was to provide exploratory data regarding potential links between firefighters’ mental health and self-reported personality characteristics. These data suggest that neuroticism may play a special role in the prediction of posttraumatic symptomatology for firefighters.