Trauma in Transportation: Factors Contributing to Positive and Negative Outcomes of Involvement in Trauma for Railroad Workers

This study explored several predictors of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) in a sample of 136 train employees. The first objective was to examine the influence of number of work related traumas, number of life traumas, age, personality characteristic extroversion, personality characteristic openness, social support, positive cognitive coping, and negative cognitive coping in the prediction of PTSD. The second objective was to assess the influence of number of work related traumas, number of life traumas, age, personality characteristic extroversion, personality characteristic openness, social support, positive cognitive coping, and negative cognitive coping prediction of PTG. Freight train employees from a major transportation company in the United States participated in the study. There has not been a thorough exploration of negative and positive outcomes of trauma in the literature with this population. The study attempted to gain further understanding of PTSD and PTG in train employees by using simple linear regression analyses to investigate number of traumas in predicting PTSD and PTG. The study then utilized hierarchical regression analyses to investigate how number of work related traumas, number of life traumas, age, personality characteristic extroversion, personality characteristic openness, social support, positive cognitive coping, and negative cognitive coping were related to PTSD and then in a separate regression using the same variables to predict PTG. Results of this study indicated that number of work traumas predicted PTSD, although number of work traumas did not predict PTG. Also, factors in the hierarchical model that were significant predictors of PTSD were number of work traumas, number of life traumas, negative cognitive coping, and positive cognitive coping. In the model predicting PTG, social support, negative cognitive coping, and positive cognitive coping were statistically significant. The field of PTG is relatively young in comparison to the study of more pathological trauma, PTSD. Previous research has indicated personality factors, social support, and cognitive processing to have theoretical bases in the emergence of growth, and can also serve as protective factors for negative trauma reactions. This is the first study to look at PTG in train employees and to also apply personality characteristics, social support, and cognitive coping. The results of the study provide evidence that social support, negative cognitive coping, and positive cognitive coping are related to PTG. Further, results indicated that number of work traumas, number of life traumas, positive cognitive coping, and negative cognitive coping predicted PTSD