Younger, more senior, and most vulnerable? Interaction effects of age and job seniority on psychological distress and quality of life among firefighters.

Abstract

Objectives: Firefighters are exposed to repeated traumatic events while the robustness of cumulative effects of repeated exposure to trauma on psychological distress among them are inconsistent. Considering the length of service and seniority are risk factors, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the interaction between age and seniority on psychological distress and quality of life among firefighters. Methods: Participants were 229 firefighters of the Hualien County Fire Bureau in Taiwan who worked full time in response to emergency services and disaster rescues activities. Probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, and quality of life were assessed among firefighters using psychodiagnostics questionnaires. Firefighters were stratified based on age into a young and a mature group, and based on length of service into a junior and a senior group, yielding four groups: "young-senior," "young-junior," "mature-senior," and "mature-junior." Results: A majority of the firefighters were dissatisfied with their health condition. All the firefighters scored relatively lower at the social domain of their quality of life compared with physical, emotional, and environment domains. In the post hoc multiple comparison analysis, the young-senior firefighters were found to be most vulnerable to psychological distress, manifested in having a higher prevalence of, and suffering from more, severe probable PTSD, depression, anxiety, and agoraphobia symptoms than the other groups of firefighters. Conclusions: Age and job seniority have significant effects on psychological distress among firefighters. Being young and starting young to serve as a firefighter for a relatively long time is a significant risk factor for psychological distress. Clinical Impact StatementThis study suggests that being young and starting young to serve as a firefighter for a relatively long time is a significant risk factor for psychological distress. This implies that age and job seniority have significant effects on psychological distress, and the cumulative effects of the repeated trauma exposure should be taken into consideration for prevention and alleviation of psychological distress among firefighters.

Turnover intentions and safety compliance in the military: A psychological contract perspective

“…Both outcomes are of paramount importance in a military context as exemplified by the problematic high levels of turnover among military personnel (Guibert, 2017;Handelsblatt, 2018;Heinecken, 2009;Legge, 2019;Richter, 2017;Szvircsev, Tresch, & Leuprecht, 2010) and the fact that safety behavior is especially important in a military context, which is heavily reliant of the compliance with appropriate and effective regulations (Martínez-Córcoles & Stephanou, 2017;Military Aviation Authority, 2020). However, as stated in the introduction, these conditions can be found in numerous other professions that rely on safety compliance behavior such as firefighters, police officers, private security personnel, construction workers, nurses, and other health care personnel (e.g., Ayodele et al, 2021;Charman & Bennett, 2021;De los Santos & Labrague, 2021;Goh et al, 2021;Seung, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021). Furthermore, there are many other professions for which turnover is not as high but for whom safety compliance is also of the upmost importance (e.g., people working on oil platforms, train drivers, air traffic controllers).…”

Mapping network connection of comorbidity of depression and anxiety symptoms among firefighters exposed to traumatic events: Insights from a network analysis.

“…The occupation of firefighting may be one of the most vulnerable globally because, as first responders, firefighters frequently witness injury or death, get injured, or even lose their lives in emergencies (Goh et al, 2021). In addition to the physical risk, firefighters do not receive adequate rest since the prompt reaction to potential disasters is part of their daily routine.…”

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

“…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 ].…”