Dispositional self-forgiveness in firefighters predicts less help-seeking stigma and fewer mental health challenges.

Abstract

Firefighters face increased rates of mental health disorders secondary to traumatic exposure yet consistently report that stigma interferes with help-seeking. We examined whether firefighters who are by disposition more self-forgiving would exhibit less stigma and fewer mental health challenges. Dispositional self-forgiveness is a personality trait characterized by nonintropunitive responding, self-acceptance/positivity, and resolution of negative states following perceived failure. A community sample of professional firefighters (n = 72) completed measures of trait self-forgiveness, stigma, PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicidality. Consistent with expectations, self-forgiveness was associated with less self-stigma (r = −.38) and internalized stigma (r = −.42). Consistent with theory, no substantive link was found between self-forgiveness and public stigma. Also consistent with expectations, substantive relationships were found with wellbeing: self-forgiveness predicted fewer depressive symptoms, less suicidality, and fewer PTSD symptoms. Surprisingly, these relationships existed largely independent of relationships with stigma. Overall, trait self-forgiveness was an important predictor of both stigma and mental health symptoms among professional firefighters. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

A Relational Model for Stress: A Systematic Review of the Risk and Protective Factors for Stress-Related Diseases in Firefighters

“…Regarding PTSD rates, deviations were verified-while some studies reported PTSD rates of 26.6% [10] and 31.8% [11] among firefighters, others indicated 13% [12], or even 2.7% [13]. The reasons for a such variation in PTSD prevalence may be related to: the location of data collection, such as when it occurred inside fire departments-due to the lack of homogeneity in samples in relation to the risk faced or, when they are homogeneous, the workplace may inhibit the emotional manifestations [14]; cultural characteristics [15]; or fear of stigma, a common aspect among these professionals [16][17][18][19]. In addition to presenting evidence for the prevalence of PTSD, the symptoms recurrently mentioned by studies were depression (N = 16), alcohol abuse (N = 11), suicidal ideation or behaviors (N = 10) and avoidance (N = 6).…”

“…Then, the severity and exposure time enter in this model, since trauma load [10,45] and the number of critical incidents [14,25,31] were significantly related to PTSD symptom severity (both p range <0.01 to <0.001). Notably, personality traits such as extraversion (p <0.001) [40], impulsivity (p = 0.003) [21], optimism (p <0.05) [40], self-forgiveness (p <0.001) [18], distress tolerance ( p<0.001) [50], and resiliency (p <0.001) [24,33,55] seem to affect all other variables which influence the perception of stress, thereby affecting the choice of coping strategies. Moreover, personality traits were directly associated with the choice of coping strategies (p range <0.05 to <0.001) [21,36,40,44], which can lead to either stress-related diseases or normal stress reactions and a recovery process.…”

The impact of the traditional male role norms on the posttraumatic stress disorder among Polish male firefighters

“…Sixth, the study did not take into consideration other potential mental health issues of the respondents, drug and alcohol use and other adverse experiences, e.g., those from the childhood. They might potentially increase the reported levels of PTSD symptomatology [ 11 , 26 – 29 ].…”

“…Among risk factors against PTSD among firefighters, there are maladaptative coping styles [ 11 – 15 ], alienation, feelings of insecurity and lack of personal control [ 16 ], high neuroticism, and fear of dying on duty [ 17 ], anxiety sensitivity [ 18 , 19 ], negative emotionality [ 20 ], burnout [ 21 , 22 ], length of service and lower rank [ 10 , 14 , 23 – 25 ], previous high exposure to traumatic events and previous psychopathology [ 11 , 26 – 29 ], elevated startle response [ 30 ], increased tendency to catastrophize [ 31 ], high hostility and low self-efficacy [ 3 ], negative self-appraisals [ 14 , 32 ], occupational stress, lack of social support and shift work [ 10 , 33 – 35 ], external locus of control in the workplace, low education and low resilience [ 24 , 36 ], and high social introversion and masculinity [ 37 ]. These risk factors seem to fall into three broad categories—intrapersonal [ 11 – 22 , 27 – 31 , 36 ], workplace-related [ 10 , 11 , 14 , 23 – 26 ] and social [ 10 , 16 , 33 – 35 ].…”

Cyber victimization and well-being in adolescents: The sequential mediation role of forgiveness and coping with cyberbullying

“…Forgiveness is the process of changing one's feelings and attitudes, including anger and revenge, after a negative experience (Barcaccia et al, 2018). Previous studies have revealed that forgiveness has the effect of reducing negative emotions (Roxas et al, 2019;Carpenter et al, 2020). Researchers also found that forgiveness provides justice among individuals, reduces anxiety and depression, and increases well-being (Steiner et al, 2012;Fincham, 2015).…”