Traumatic Stress and Resilience – Work, Stress, and Health

The Effects of Chronic Thought Suppression on Post-Traumatic Stress Symptom Severity in Firefighters

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Firefighter recruits through their first three years of service completed surveys measuring levels of thought suppression, PTSD symptoms, and exposure to potentially traumatic events. A secondary data analysis was conducted, and structural equation modeling revealed that, when controlling for trauma exposure, trait thought suppression correlated significantly with PTSD symptom severity. These results emphasize the importance of considering an individual’s tendency towards thought suppression as a complicating factor of firefighter PTSD severity.

Stigma and sources of help-seeking for mental health challenges among firefighters

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how stigma related to sources of help-seeking among firefighters. Over 2,000 firefighters across the United States and Canada completed an anonymous online survey including questions about stigma regarding mental health care and sources of help-seeking. Firefighters who reported stigma would prevent them from using behavioral health services were less likely to report that they would seek help from Department or Union EAP/MAP services, coworkers, and officers.

New venture launch: The impacts of relationship quality and spousal commitment

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The study purpose is to examine individual and relational contributions to an entrepreneur?s perception of their spouse?s commitment to a new business venture one year after its creation. Hobfoll?s Conservation of Resources theory of stress was the theoretical grounding for the study of 73 entrepreneurs and their spouses. Whether a spouse was involved in the new venture prior to its launching, whether the spouse perceived the new venture to be a positive influence on their couple relationship, and an entrepreneur?s positive global affect one year after the launch predicted the entrepreneur?s perception of spousal commitment to the new venture one year after its launch. Spousal involvement had the strongest influence on entrepreneur?s perception of spousal commitment followed by spousal expectation of the business on their couple relationship and entrepreneur?s global affect.

NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program: Work, Stress, and Health

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program (AgFF) provides leadership and coordination between intra- and extramural efforts nationwide to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses among the nation?s agricultural, forestry, and fishing workers (AgFF). AgFF workers are exposed to high-risk, unpredictable environments, as well as long hours and shift work. Likewise, the majority of AgFF workers are in non-standard work arrangements, and unlike many sectors, most AgFF workers are specifically exempted in many regulatory policies regarding minimum wage, overtime, maximum hours per shift, child labor, and health and safety enforcement. This poster will highlight the NIOSH AgFF Program?s recent and future research, training, and outreach initiatives related to mental health and stress, sleep deprivation and fatigue, aging, workplace violence, non-standard work arrangements, and health equity in order to improve the overall health of all AgFF workers.

Moderating impact of resources on the relationship between covid demands and Burnout in Emergency Department Health-Care Workers

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Burnout has been a major concern for all workers, but may be particularly concerning and prevalent for healthcare workers. Therefore, we examined healthcare workers before and during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to understand the extent to which the resources that workers had prior to the pandemic would help to buffer the negative impact of Covid stressors on worker health outcomes.

Worker commitment to addressing burnout pre and post COVID-19.

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a multi-union, joint labor-management team of mental health staff prioritized burnout at their public-sector worksite. A comprehensive set of interventions to address root causes was in its implementation phase when the global pandemic both interrupted those plans and exacerbated burnout for all healthcare workers. This team is now exploring what changes to their original interventions might be needed to address the massive post-pandemic burnout which they and co-workers are experiencing. They plan to lead a series of focus groups at their facility, to better understand how their colleagues experienced the last year, and what efforts would be meaningful and feasible now.

Early career challenges on the frontlines: Emergency medicine residents’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted countless challenges and novel stressors on healthcare workers. Emergency medicine residents have been on the frontlines of this crisis from the very start and have encountered a variety of unique stressors and challenges throughout this global crisis. Research presented here seeks to provide insight into emergency medicine residents? experiences through a mixed-methods longitudinal survey administered beginning in March 2020 and continuing to present day. Results provide a continuous and detailed storyline of challenges and coping mechanisms that emergency medicine residents have reported throughout this global crisis.

Does psychological capital moderate the effect of adverse childhood experiences on subjective well-being and job burnout? A moderated mediation model

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

This study investigates the role of psychological capital as a buffer of the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on subjective well-being and job burnout. We used a sample of 359 workers from a public organization in Puerto Rico to test the effect of ACE on job burnout through subjective wellbeing and to examine the moderating role of psychological capital in this indirect effect. Results showed that ACE have a negative effect on job burnout through subjective well-being. The conditional process analysis showed a significant moderated mediation in which the effect of ACE on burnout via subjective well-being is not significant at higher levels of psychological capital. This study provides empirical evidence for the potential of psychological capital interventions to mitigate the effect of ACE on subjective and work-related well-being.

Emotional exhaustion in healthcare workers: The importance of organizational leadership and safety

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

In this study conducted in a mixed population of non-clinical and clinical healthcare staff, we examined the association of emotional exhaustion-a dimension of burnout-with understudied work environment exposures including organizational-level policies and practices as well as job-level hazardous work conditions, using a novel mediation analysis approach proposed by Valerie and VanderWeele. We found that job safety, emotional labor, psychological demands, physical demands, job strain, assault and negative acts (bullying) were positively associated with emotional exhaustion while organizational support for safety was negatively associated. Job hazards served as both mediator and moderator in the association between organizational support for safety and emotional exhaustion. These findings suggest that policies for organizational commitment to employee safety should be efficiently applied to ensure reduction of job hazards in order to improve burnout. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further examine this association.

Occupational Stress and Burnout in the Fire Service: Examining the Complex Role and Impact of Sleep Health

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

The occupational stress inherent in firefighting poses both physiological and psychological risks to firefighters that have been found to possess a reciprocal nature. That is, the nature of these relationships in terms of indicator and impact are elusive, especially as it relates to sleep health (e.g., quality, quantity, hygiene, etc.) as a specific physiological risk and burnout as a specific psychological risk. A series of mediation models were assessed to examine the reciprocal relationships between occupational stress, burnout, and sleep health in a sample of 161 career firefighters. The mediation models confirmed reciprocity among the variables in so much that relationships were best described by the underlying mechanism at work. Comprehensive assessments of both subjective and objective markers of sleep health should be incorporated into firefighter research to supplement behavioral health assessments and interventions, especially related to burnout and occupational stress.