Objective: Firefighters represent an understudied population with high rates of chronic exposure to stress and potentially traumatic events. Thus, there is a need to identify modifiable resilience factors to address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (PTSD) and chronic pain in firefighters to inform prevention and intervention efforts.
Methods: The current sample included 155 firefighters (93.5% male; Mage = 42.2, SD = 9.8) recruited online from career, volunteer, and combination (i.e., volunteer and career) departments in a large metropolitan area in the southern United States.
Results: Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the associations between/among resilience and hope on PTSD symptoms, chronic pain, well-being, and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Resilience had a stronger, negative relationship with PTSD and chronic pain compared to hope, while hope had a stronger, positive relationship with PTG and well-being compared to resilience. Hope and resilience combined predicted 10%-33% of the variance in the outcomes.
Conclusion: The current findings may provide evidence to promote interventions that increase resilience and hope in firefighters.
Keywords: PTSD; chronic pain; firefighters; hope; resilience; well-being.
© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.