Coping and post-traumatic stress in male firefighters.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether emotional intelligence and proactive coping had an effect on firefighters' susceptibility to developing post-traumatic stress. This study compared data from an existing sample of 94 firefighters. Data was split by subscale for the Impact of Events Scale - Revised questionnaire, and was analyzed using regression. The results indicated that firefighters higher in emotional intelligence experienced greater symptoms of avoidance than firefighters lower in emotional intelligence. Additionally, the data supported the hypothesis that firefighters who were higher in proactive coping would experience less anxiety. However, results of the study indicated that emotional intelligence did not influence symptoms of hyperarousal, intrusions, or anxiety, and proactive coping does not predict avoidance, hyperarousal, or intrusions.