Stress and Resilience Among First Responders

none2Policemen, firefighters and emergency health workers are exposed to acute work-related stressors, such as disasters, acts of violence, helping seriously injured children and adults, suicide and multiple deaths. These critical incidents may be described as unusual occurrences that are sudden, overwhelming and emotionally challenging. As a result of this exposure, first responders' quality of life may be undermined. First responders may suffer from posttraumatic symptoms, such as intrusions, avoidances and hyperarousal, and may experience as anxiety, anger and feelings of guilt. For some, this may lead to long-term psychological difficulties, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), burnout, depression or substance abuse. First responders' psychological well being is extensively investigated, even though studies focus mostly on negative outcomes affecting a minority of them. Research on occupational stress has focused, for the most part, on stressors and risk factors according to a pathogenic model. Recently, the resilience perspective has been adopted from developmental psychology in order to investigate protective factors according to a salutogenic model.The aim of this book is to present theoretical frameworks and empirical data concerning stress and resilience among first responders (police officers, fire-fighters, Civil Protection personnel, paramedics). In this book, the following research questions are central: 1. What is the impact of critical incidents involvement on the quality of life of first responders? 2. What are the psychosocial resilience factors that mitigate this impact? The present book makes three important contributions to the field of resilience among first responders in the aftermath of potentially traumatic events. First, it shows how the interaction between risk and protective factors may compensate for the exposure to critical incidents. Secondly, it shows that resilience factors such as self-efficacy, collective efficacy, social support and coping strategies may mitigate the impact of critical incidents involvement. Thirdly, it shows that first responders' quality of life encompasses positive and negative mental health outcomes and each of these may be related to different predictors.Titolo della collana: Collana di psicologia ; 9nonePrati G.; Pietrantoni L.Prati G.; Pietrantoni L