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Global and Occupation‐Specific Emotional Resources as Buffers against the Emotional Demands of Fire‐Fighting
Author(s) -
Tuckey Michelle R.,
Hayward Renae
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2010.00424.x
Subject(s) - burnout , emotional exhaustion , psychology , autonomy , emotional stress , resource (disambiguation) , path analysis (statistics) , social psychology , applied psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , political science , computer network , statistics , mathematics , computer science , law
Job resources have a protective role in minimising job strain and associated adverse outcomes. Although autonomy and support are recognised as valuable resources across nearly all occupations, relatively few occupation‐specific resources have been identified within the literature. We studied global (general) emotional resources and an occupation‐specific emotional resource (camaraderie) as potential buffers against the deleterious effects of emotional demands on emergency responders. A random sample of 547 volunteer fire‐fighters completed an anonymous survey. Through path analysis we identified significant main and interaction effects of emotional demands and resources on psychological strain and burnout. Camaraderie, the specific resource, had the most consistent protective effects against poor psychological health; the effects of global emotional resources were not as consistent. These findings have important implications for theory (e.g. the specificity of resources most appropriate for theory testing and development) and for practice (e.g. for designing primary, secondary, and tertiary stress prevention and management initiatives).