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

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.