La regulación emocional de síntomas psicopatológicos de los bomberosA regulaçao emocional de sintomas psicopatológicos de bombeiros

Abstract

Several studies have confirmed that fire-fighters and other professionals related to medical emergency and rescue operations are very exposed to stressful situations that increase the risk of developing many different kinds of psychological disorders. Emotional regulation (ER) is a research area that has gained increasing importance with several studies connecting adaptive emotional regulatory processes with more effective factors of protection against the risk and maladaptive strategies with the development of some psychological disorders. This research intended to measure levels of symptoms of psychopathology, adaptive and maladaptive capabilities of emotional regulation and also analyse the role of ER processes in those symptoms. In a sample of 938 Portuguese fire-fighters results indicated prevalence of 15, 7 % of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, 10, 6% of depression, 4, 3 % of anxiety, 17, 4% of stress symptoms and gender differences in psychopathology symptoms and in the use of emotion regulation strategies. The hierarchical multiple linear regression model revealed that adaptive and maladaptive processes of ER are important predictors of psychopathology symptoms (p<0,001), explaining 40, 7% of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms variance, 45,4% of depression, 42,7% of stress and 34,4% of anxiety. The study concluded that the substantial impact of adaptive regulatory processes in possible psychopathology development can be used and operated in specific preventive intervention programs that enhance adjusted emotional regulation capabilities in both men and women fire-fighters.