Examining the Relative Influences of the Risk Factors and Protective Factors That Affect Firefighter Resilience

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relative influences of the risk factors and protective factors that affect firefighters’ resilience. Based on previous studies, we selected three risk factors and four protective factors. The former included cognitive bias, socially prescribed perfectionism, and social anxiety. The latter included deliberate rumination, self-encouragement, family relations, and peer support. A total of 330 full-time professional firefighters in Korea participated in the study, and we analyzed 271 questionnaires. We conducted multiple regression analyses and the results were as follows. The risk factors explained 43.7% of resilience and both cognitive bias and social anxiety showed significant negative influences. Meanwhile, the protective factors explained 52.6% of resilience and we found both peer support and self-encouragement to be significant. Finally, we included seven variables in our multiple regression analysis to verify their relative influences on resilience, and these variables explained 59.5% of resilience. In the final analysis, we identified cognitive bias, peer support, and self-encouragement as the relatively significant variables that affect firefighters’ resilience. We conclude this paper by outlining the relevant implications of our findings and discussing the study’s limitations.