Resilience mediates the relationship between social support and post-traumatic stress symptoms in police officers

Abstract

Objective: Police officers in the New Orleans geographic area faced a number of challenges following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Design: This cross-sectional study examined gratitude, resilience, and satisfaction with life as mediators in the association between social support and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in 82 male and 31 female police officers. The Gratitude Questionnaire, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List were used to measure gratitude, resilience, satisfaction with life, and social support, respectively. PTSD symptoms were measured using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C). Ordinary least square regression mediation analysis was used to estimate direct and indirect effects among gratitude, resilience, satisfaction with life, social support, and PTSD symptoms. All models were adjusted for age, alcohol, race, and previous military experience.Results: Mean PCL-C symptoms were 29.1 (standard deviation [SD] = 14.4) for females and 27.9 (SD = 12.1) for males. There was no direct relationship between social support and PTSD symptoms (c9 = −0.041; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.199, 0.117) independent of the indirect effect through resilience (effect = −0.038; 95%CI = −0.099, −0.002). Neither gratitude (effect = −0.066; 95% CI = −0.203, 0.090) nor satisfaction with life (effect = −0.036, 95% CI = −0.131, 0.046) contribute to the indirect effect.Conclusions: These results indicate that resilience mediates the relationship between social support and symptoms of PTSD. Targeting social support and resilience in officers may facilitate reduction of PTSD symptoms.