Stress Health

Police officers often continue to face numerous threats and stressors in the aftermath of a disaster. To date, posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been studied primarily in the context of significant trauma; thus, it is not known whether stressful life events are associated with PTG. This study investigated the development of PTG among 113 police officers working in the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina. Hierarchical regression was used to evaluate if gratitude, social support, and satisfaction with life moderated the relationship between stressful life events (as measured by the total life stress score) and PTG, after adjustment for age, sex, race, level of involvement in Hurricane Katrina, and alcohol intake. Results indicate that stressful life events are independently associated with PTG. Gratitude, satisfaction with life, and social support were seen to moderate this relationship; as stressful life events increased so too did PTG-particularly among officers with higher levels of gratitude (B\ua0=\ua00.002, p\ua0 64\ua0.05), satisfaction with life (B\ua0=\ua00.002, p\ua0 64\ua0.05), and social support (B\ua0=\ua00.001, p\ua0 64\ua0.05). These findings suggest that promoting satisfaction with life, interpersonal support, and gratitude may be beneficial to those who are regularly at risk of trauma exposure.CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United StatesR01 OH010807/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United StatesR03 OH009582/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States2019-02-01T00:00:00Z28703379PMC6314019vault:3127