Social support as a mediator of psychological distress in firefighters

Of the multiple factors found to mediate distress secondary to traumatic exposure in firefighters, social support is consistently found to be associated with the occurrence of posttraumatic symptoms and depression. This paper reports four studies on social support in firefighters in order to provide a more comprehensive picture about the nature of social support in the fire service, and to explore factors that may enhance or undermine the social supports of firefighters. Results indicate that while social support is an important mediator of distress, social supports are lower in experienced firefighters than new recruits. The combined qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that the nature of the job of firefighting, and the culture of the organisation, place the social support network of firefighters at risk as a career evolves. This is an important consideration for firefighting organisations, and suggests that increased attention must be played to support families in order to ensure optimal healt...