Effects of Perception of Job Stress and Stress Coping Style on Mental Health of Firefighters

Ho Jin Lee; Hee Sook Kim; Sang Yeon Park

doi:10.12934/jkpmhn.2011.20.3.315

Journal List > J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs > v.20(3) > 1057913

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Lee, Kim, and Park: Effects of Perception of Job Stress and Stress Coping Style on Mental Health of Firefighters

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2011; 20(3): 315-324.

Published online: 30 September 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2011.20.3.315

Effects of Perception of Job Stress and Stress Coping Style on Mental Health of Firefighters

Ho Jin Lee¹, Hee Sook Kim², Sang Yeon Park³

¹Team Leader, Daegu Junggu Community Mental Health Center, Korea.

²Associate Professor, College of Nursing, Kyungpook National University, Korea.

³Professor, College of Nursing, Kyungpook National University, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Kim, Hee Sook, College of Nursing, Kyungpook National University, 101 Dongin-dong, Joung-gu, Daegu 700-420, Korea. Tel: 82-53-420-4927, Fax: 82-53-422-4926, hskim8879@knu.ac.kr

Received 25 May 2011 Revised 11 August 2011 Accepted 21 September 2011

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

This study was conducted to identify factors which influence mental health of firefighters.

Methods

Participants in this study were firefighters from D city who were doing activities like extinguishing fire or rescuing sufferer at fire or accident scenes. A survey was conducted from September 14 to 24, 2010. Research tools were perception of job stress, problems-focused coping, seeking social support, emotion-focused coping, and wishful thinking coping which are sub-domain of coping stress, and SCL-90-R. Data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 14.0, and included t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Scheffe back-testing. Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression were also conducted to identify factors influencing mental health.

Results

Mental health was positively correlated with perception of job stress, emotion-focused coping, and wishful thinking coping. Effective variables were perception of job stress (β=.38, p<.001), emotion-focused coping (β=.28, p<.001), and problemfocused coping (β=-.15, p=.012). These variables explained 26% of the variance in mental health.

Conclusion

The results suggest that improvements in problem-focused coping and decreases in perception of job stress and emotion-focused coping are important in promoting the mental health of firefighters.

Keywords: Firefighter, Mental health, Job stress, Coping

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Mental Health according to Characteristics (N=282)

Table 2

Distribution according to Mental Health Level (N=282)

GSI=global severity index.

Table 3

The Degree of Variables (N=282)

Table 4

Correlation between Variables (N=282)

Table 5

Influencing Factors of Mental Health (N=282)

Notes

This article is a condensed form of the first author's master's thesis from Kyungpook National University.

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