Coping with Stressors: Understanding Negative Emotions, Harmful Strategies, and the Role of Fire Service Culture

消防员和其他急救人员一样，如警察、急救人员和医务人员，由于工作压力大，他们面临着越来越多的心理健康和福祉问题。此外，对于在压力下挣扎的消防员来说，“消防文化”不鼓励表现出软弱和寻求帮助，从而帮助他们的挣扎。这些问题导致了许多领域的人员配备问题和征聘人员短缺。本项目考察了不同部门、消防站和班次的消防文化的不同应对策略和影响。关注消防文化的影响为组织文化对心理健康结果的作用提供了独特的见解。该项目的调查结果有助于更好地了解第一反应者的压力和应对方式，确保社区继续得到高质量的应急反应，同时促进第一反应者的福祉。本项目测试了消防文化影响的多层次模型，该模型以男子气概竞赛文化的形式运作，这是一种强调竞争、风险和隐藏弱点的文化。通过分层随机抽样，研究人员从美国各地不同规模、地区和类型的消防部门员工中收集数据。初步数据表明，团队层面的男子气概竞赛文化与个人应对策略相互作用，以缓和压力源对情绪状态的影响，最终影响心理健康（如创伤后应激障碍和自杀意念）和工作结果（如工作退缩、工作绩效和离职意向）。这些发现有助于更准确地诊断文化在压力和应对过程中的作用，并为组织干预提供线索，以促进健康的应对，并有可能减轻各种工作压力源的影响。除了更传统的压力源外，本项目还涉及其他研究人员、从业人员和政策制定者可能感兴趣的主要大流行压力源。该奖项在各种学术和从业者渠道传播研究结果，使其不仅影响到其他学术机构，也影响到急救组织的领导人。该项目由组织科学计划（SoO）和促进竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Firefighters, like other first responders such as police, EMS, and medical personnel, are facing increasing concerns about their mental health and well-being due to the stressful nature of their jobs. Moreover, for firefighters struggling with stress, the "fire service culture" discourages showing weakness and seeking help, contributing to their struggles. These issues have led to staffing issues and a shortage of recruits in many areas. This project examines various coping strategies as well as the influence of fire service culture that varies across departments, stations, and shifts. Focusing on the impact of the fire service culture provides unique insight into the role of organizational culture on mental health outcomes. Findings of the project contribute to an improved understanding of stress and coping for first responders, ensuring that communities continue to receive high-quality emergency responses while promoting the well-being of first responders. This project tests a multilevel model of the effects of fire service culture, operationalized as masculinity contest culture, a culture that emphasizes competition, risk, and hiding weaknesses. Through stratified random sampling, the researchers collect data from employees of fire departments that vary by size, region, and type across the United States. Preliminary data suggest that masculinity contest culture at the team level interacts with individual coping strategies to moderate the effects of stressors on emotional states and ultimately mental health (e.g., PTSD and suicidal ideation) and job outcomes (e.g., job withdrawal, job performance, and turnover intentions). The findings help to diagnose the role of culture more precisely in the stress and coping process and connect the dots for organizational interventions that can promote healthy coping and potentially mitigate the effects of various job stressors. In addition to more traditional stressors, this project addresses key pandemic stressors that can be of interest to other researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The award disseminates the findings in a variety of academic and practitioner outlets so that it reaches not only other academics but also leaders in first responder organizations.This project is jointly funded by the Science of Organizations Program (SoO) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.