The level of posttraumatic stress (PTS) of policemen and firefighters who are working under risky environment, which stress economic profit and development rather than safety and protection, is incredibly high. If PTS is managed adequately, police org...
The level of posttraumatic stress (PTS) of policemen and firefighters who are working under risky environment, which stress economic profit and development rather than safety and protection, is incredibly high. If PTS is managed adequately, police organizations and fire protection organizations can attain their goals and even make advancements in their performances. Moreover, if the posttraumatic stress is not managed adequately, it could decrease the level of psychological wellbeing and increase the level of depression, and potentially leading to become a harmful impediment in the performance of their organizations.
Therefore, the author studied to compare the impact-relationship mechanism among posttraumatic stress, psychological wellbeing, and depression in the case of policemen and firefighters working in Korean police stations and fire stations.
The purposes of this research are to identify the differences of the impact relationship among posttraumatic stress, psychological wellbeing, and depression in two types of public officials in order to put an end to the vicious cycle of increased posttraumatic stress leading to deteriorated psychological wellbeing and increased likelihood of depression in pursuit to elicit a policy implication resulting in a positive cycle.
The sampling method used in this study was stratified sampling(the author sampled the survey target group according to administrative hierarchy such as Seoul Metropolitan City, megalopolis, local province), cluster sampling(the author sampled the target group by organization unit), and random sampling.
After collecting data by questionnaire survey, the author ultimately analyzed the selected research units which were 360 cases of policemen and 360 cases of firefighters. Two types of statistical packages such as SPSS 14.0, AMOS 7.0 were used. Statistical methods used in this study were descriptive statistics, reliability test, factor analysis(validity test), frequency analysis, cross-tabs analysis, t-test, ANOVA by SPSS 14.0, and path analysis by AMOS 7.0.
The results of the research and some policy implications are as follows:
The level of PTS of firefighter and policemen was not ignorable.
Even though the level of posttraumatic stress and depression of fire officials was high, their level of psychological wellbeing was high.
The level of posttraumatic stress increased depression only in policemen; however, not only was the level of depression in firefighters much higher than the level of policemen's, their psychological wellbeing was also deteriorated. This shows that a well planned solution to ease their posttraumatic stress is necessary. Along with the life events of fire fighters, mobilization shock degree gives the most stress; therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly elicit policy implications for both firefighters' life events and mobilization shock degree.
In order to help depression among policemen, decrease in posttraumatic stress and depression and increase in psychological wellbeing is necessary. Decrease in life events of policemen will also decrease their posttraumatic stress; it will also be helpful to increase the sense of purpose, the main components of psychological stability to promote psychological wellbeing. Likewise, depression of firefighters must be managed by decrement of both posttraumatic stress and traumatic life events along with mitigation of mobilization shock degree.
Both officials suffer from increasing posttraumatic stress, and the most detrimental factor for posttraumatic stress is the life events for which such policy for helpful life events are needed.
In conclusion, systematic prevention and management program for mental health is needed to diagnose and prevent their early mental problems and to manage their mental health.
Key word : Post-traumatic Stress(PTS), Psychological Wellbeing, Depression, Firefighters, Policemen.