There is a 24 month embargo from 24 December 2013 to 24 December 2015 in accordance with the journal's author permissions. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.The accepted version may be used on the following terms, which may be amended from time to time: Use by non-commercial users For non-commercial and non-promotional research and private study purposes individual users may view, print, download and copy self-archived articles, as well as text-and data-mine the content subject to the following conditions: ■The authors' moral rights are not compromised. These rights include the right of "paternity" (also known as "attribution" -the right for the author to be identified as such) and "integrity" (the right for the author not to have the work altered in such a way that the author's reputation or integrity may be impugned). All re-use must be fully attributed. ■Where content in the article is identified as belonging to a third party, it is the obligation of the user to ensure that any reuse complies with the copyright policies of the owner of that content. ■Self-archived content may not be re-published verbatim in whole or in part, whether or not for commercial purposes, in print or online. This restriction does not apply to use of quotations with appropriate citation, or text and data mining provided that the mining output is restricted to short excerpts of text and data and excludes images (unless further consent is obtained from Wiley). 2 AbstractUnderstanding public risk perceptions and their underlying processes is important in order to learn more about the way people interpret and respond to hazardous emergency events. Direct experience with an involuntary hazard has been found to heighten the perceived risk of experiencing the same hazard and its consequences in the future but it remains unclear if cross-over effects are possible (i.e. experience with one hazard influencing perceived risk for other hazards also). Furthermore, the impact of objective risk and country of residence on perceived risk is not well understood. As part of the BeSeCu (Behaviour, Security and Culture) project a sample of 1045 survivors of emergencies from seven European countries (i.e. Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey and Italy) was drawn. Results revealed heightened perceived risk for emergency events (i.e. domestic and public fires, earthquakes, floods and terrorist attacks) when the event had been experienced previously plus some evidence of cross-over effects, although these effects were not so strong. The largest country differences in perceived risk were observed for earthquakes, but this effect was significantly reduced by taking into account the objective earthquake risk. For fires, floods, terrorist attacks and traffic accidents, only small country differences in perceived risk were found. Further studies including a larger number of countries are welcomed.

Saccinto); in undertaking this work and in allowing the project findings to be published.The manuscript has not been published elsewhere and it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication else-where. DISTRESS AND GROWTH AMONG FIREFIGHTERS 4Predictors of post-event distress and growth among firefighters after work-related emergencies -a cross-national study Abstract (172 words) Firefighters may experience posttraumatic stress symptomatology (i.e. post-event distress) as a consequence of exposure to work-related distressing incidents. However, positive psychological changes (i.e. post-event growth) should also be taken into account. The aim of this cross-national study was to investigate both post-event distress and growth in firefighters following distressing incidents. A sample of 1916 firefighters from eight predominantly European countries recalled a work-related distressing incident. Two hierarchical regression analyses were run to reveal predictors of post-event distress and growth, respectively.Predictors included person pre-event characteristics, objective (e.g. type of incident, time since incident, fatalities) and subjective (e.g. perceived life-threat, peri-event distress, most distressing aspect) incident features, and the participant's country. Post-event distress was measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and growth by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF). The final models explained 29% of the variation in post-event distress and 26% in growth. Post-event distress and growth were predicted by different variables. Country differences were found after controlling for all other variables.Further research is needed to explain these differences.

No abstract

No abstract

To prevent over-, under-, and lack of supply, it is necessary to transfer knowledge about the functioning of the medical emergency services, including first aid knowledge.