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，由于工作的压力，他们的心理健康和幸福感正面临着越来越多的担忧。此外，对于与压力作斗争的消防员来说，“消防文化”不鼓励表现出软弱和寻求帮助，这对他们的挣扎是有贡献的。这些问题导致了许多领域的人员配备问题和招聘人员短缺。这个项目考察了各种应对策略以及不同部门、车站和班次的消防服务文化的影响。关注消防服务文化的影响提供了对组织文化对心理健康结果的作用的独特见解。该项目的调查结果有助于提高急救员对压力和应对措施的了解，确保社区继续得到高质量的应急反应，同时促进急救员的福祉。这个项目测试了一个多层次的消防文化效果模型，被操作为男子气概竞赛文化，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的员工那里收集数据。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和最终心理健康(例如，创伤后应激障碍和自杀意念)和工作结果(例如，工作退出、工作表现和离职意图)的影响。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，并将有助于促进健康应对并可能缓解各种工作压力影响的组织干预措施联系起来。除了更传统的压力源之外，该项目还解决了其他研究人员、从业者和政策制定者可能感兴趣的关键大流行压力源。该奖项在不同的学术和实践者渠道传播研究结果，因此它不仅惠及其他学者，还包括急救组织的领导者。该项目由组织科学计划(SOO)和既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.