Croissance post-traumatique et stratégies de coping chez les sapeurs-pompiers civils français

Introduction

Often faced with potentially traumatic critical incidents, firefighters may experience both negative and positive changes. These include full or partial post-traumatic stress disorder, specific coping strategies and possibly post-traumatic growth. For firefighters, these factors might be related, and their experiences may be possibly different depending on the status of the participants (professional vs volunteer firefighters).

Objective

The aim of this study is to explore and predict post-traumatic growth, post-traumatic stress disorder and coping strategies in a sample of French professional and volunteer firefighters.

Method

A mixed research methodology was used. The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, the Brief-Cope Inventory, and a semi-structured research interview were used with sixteen participants, divided into two equal groups: a group of eight professional firefighters and a group of eight volunteer firefighters.

Results

Post-traumatic growth was predicted at 63.4 % by traumatic symptomatology (altered arousal and reactivity) and by coping strategies (avoidance and positive thoughts). Spiritual changes predicted post-traumatic distress at 24.9 %. Firefighters who were not parents had more post-traumatic growth and positive thoughts than those who had children. There were no statistical difference between the volunteer and professional firefighter groups. Volunteer firefighters felt more vulnerable to critical incidents than professional firefighters because they have access to fewer effective resources.

Conclusion

Post-traumatic growth among firefighters could be explained by post-traumatic distress and coping strategies. Other factors influencing post-traumatic growth would need to be investigated (coping flexibility, parenting, a sense of self-efficacy).