Correlates of mental health in occupations at risk for traumatization: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Hospitals, police stations, and fire departments are highly demanding work places. Staff members are regularly exposed to various stressors including traumatic events. Correspondingly, several studies report high rates of mental health issues among these occupations. Nevertheless, despite these challenging circumstances, some staff members manage to sustain their mental health. The current study is the first to investigate correlates of mental health among three different highly demanding occupations. Methods The present cross-sectional survey investigated health-benefitting factors (sense of coherence – SOC, trait resilience, locus of control – LOC) and psychopathological symptoms (general mental health problems, posttraumatic stress, burnout) in medical staff ( n = 223), police officers ( n = 257), and firefighters ( n = 100). Results Among all occupations, SOC, trait resilience, and an internal LOC were negatively associated with general mental health problems, posttraumatic stress, and burnout symptoms. By contrast, all these outcome measures were positively correlated with an external LOC. Multiple regression models including all health-benefitting factors as predictors explained 56% of the variance in general mental health problems and 27% in posttraumatic stress symptoms. Among all occupations, SOC was the strongest predictor of both general mental health problems and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Multigroup path analyses revealed minor differences across occupations, mainly driven by a stronger influence of LOC in police officers. Conclusion Across all occupations, SOC was identified as the most important health-benefitting factor. Future longitudinal studies should further examine the causal link between health-benefitting factors and mental distress in different work places. Such studies will also allow for further development and evaluation of resilience promoting programs.

Interrelations of resilience factors and their incremental impact for mental health: Insights from network modeling using a prospective study across seven timepoints

“…Sense of coherence (SOC) played the most prominent role in the RF network and as a correlate and predictor of psychopathological symptoms and COVID-19-related rumination. In line with our hypotheses and previous research [67][68][69][70] , the importance of SOC was further supported by LASSO regressions showing that higher SOC was associated with lower symptoms and rumination at all timepoints. Interestingly, when simultaneously accounting for other RFs, SOC showed no partial correlation with stress-related growth, which was uniquely associated with positive reframing and optimism in the network models and had inconsistent predictors in the LASSO regressions.…”

‘You’re not just a medical professional’: Exploring paramedic experiences of overdose response within Vancouver’s downtown eastside

“…While our study does not directly investigate burnout, participants did describe empathetic attitudes as a form of resilience against feelings of helplessness. Given that helplessness, and a general lack of control, has itself been associated with burnout [ 45 ], our findings suggest that further study into these relationships may be valuable. Future research should explore paramedic resilience during the overdose crisis with a particular emphasis on how empathy and experiential learning contribute to that process.…”

Traditional Male Role Norms, Social Support, and Symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Among Male Polish Police Officers

“…PTSD develops more frequently in persons that have got injured during a traumatic event-including perceived moral injury (Papazoglu et al 2020); the persons also more often abuse medicines and suffer from depression and adjustment disorders (Koren et al 2005;Wagner et al 2020). A positive attitude toward expressing emotions (Stephens et al 1997), self-resiliency (Lee et al 2016b;van der Meulen et al 2018), having a hobby, job satisfaction (Carlier et al 1997), an internal locus of control, a sense of coherence (Schäfer et al 2020), and co-worker support (Martin et al 2009;Syed et al 2020;Wagner et al 2020) constitute protective factors.…”