Post traumatic stress disorder in first responders: The effectiveness of psychological intervention on stress response and coping styles

During emergencies, first responders such as firefighters experience intensely traumatic situations known as critical incidents. Emotional processing theory suggests that improper processing of these incidents may result in posttraumatic stress disorder. Stimulus response theory suggests that psychological interventions available to these responders can improve their coping styles, which in turn affects the stress response. Research with firefighters supports both of these theories; however, specialized responders such as transportation employees often do not have access to these interventions. The impact of traumatic situations on these responders has not been studied systematically. The purpose of this cross-sectional correlational study was to compare critical incident stress response and coping style using a convenience sample of 53 Department of Transportation union members and 41 volunteer firefighters as measured by the Impact of Events Scale Revised and the Brief COPE Inventory. Study hypotheses were assessed using analyses of variance, and the findings indicated that while stress response did not differ by responder classification, the use of reframing coping was significantly different. Secondary analyses demonstrated that regardless of response type, those who actively participated in psychological interventions reported more positive coping style usage than nonparticipants. These findings contribute to positive social change by suggesting that psychological interventions may be beneficial to responder coping after a critical incident and that transportation employees would benefit from similar interventions available to other first responders.