Firefighter posttraumatic stress disorder, cognitive impairment and social desirability: A quantitative work-based study

Firefighter posttraumatic stress disorder, cognitive impairment and social desirability: A quantitative work-based study

This thesis-by-publication explores post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cognitive impairment (CI) and social desirability (SD) against background and demographic variables in firefighters in Queensland, Australia. Participants were full and part-time employed firefighters (N = 134) who completed a survey of standardised measures of PTSD (i.e., the PCL-5, which defines PTSD as the psychological result of exposure to highly stressful or traumatic events), CI (i.e., the AD8, which defines CI as impairments that are not significant enough to interfere with activities of daily living but nevertheless identifiable), and SD (i.e., the Marlowe-Crowne Form C, which defines SD as biased self-presentation or dissimulation and the concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character), as well as various background and demographic questions. Results suggest that no differences were found between full- and part-time employed firefighters on any measure except for demographic variables of age, gender and years of service. Those who scored higher on SD scored lower on post-traumatic stress disorder and cognitive impairment, meaning those firefighters who tended toward concealing their thoughts or feelings also had lower PTSD and lower CI. Age, years of service, and those who answered a subjective question on whether they had any psychopathology scored higher on PTSD and CI, indicating that PTSD and CI were unsurprisingly both related to age, years of service and a subjective sense of psychopathology. Furthermore, rates of firefighter CI were over double those of firefighter PTSD. These results indicate that most firefighters give socially desirable answers to portray lower PTSD and CI, while being older and/or having more years of service might contribute to more PTSD and CI. Interestingly, this conclusion implies that despite the significant body of research on firefighter PTSD, firefighter CI would appear to be a more common (i.e., prevalent) and insidious affliction. A final implication of this research is that a significant majority of firefighters may give socially desirable answers about their mental health, a topic that needs further investigation.

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