Can Firefighters’ Mental Health Be Predicted by Emotional Intelligence and Proactive Coping?

Author： Wagner Shannon L. Martin Crystal A.

ISSN： 1532-5032

Source： Journal of Loss and Trauma, Vol.17, Iss.1, 2012-01, pp. : 56-72

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

The present study explores emotional intelligence and proactive coping as possible protective factors for both a group of paid-professional firefighters (n = 94) and a group of similar comparison participants (n = 91). Each respondent completed the Impact of Events Scale-Revised, Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, Emotional Intelligence Scale, and Proactive Coping Scale. Using an exploratory/liberal Type 1 error rate (α ≤ .10), our results suggested that for firefighters emotional intelligence negatively predicted self-reported traumatic stress (β = −.198), while proactive coping negatively predicted several other mental health symptoms (obsessive-compulsive β = −.192, depression β = −.220, anxiety β = −.295). For the comparison participants, the pattern of results was substantially different from the firefighters in that emotional intelligence negatively predicted several mental health symptoms (interpersonal sensitivity β = − .465, depression β = − .239, anxiety β = −.269, hostility β = −.349) and proactive coping only predicted a lack of psychoticism (β = −.216).