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Social support, stress, and suicidal ideation in professional firefighters
Grace Stephanie J Carpenter1, Thomas P Carpenter2, Nathan A Kimbrel3
1Baylor Scott & White Warriors Research Institute, Waco, TX, USA. suzybird@aol.com.
Objective:
To hypothesize that social support may protect against the effect of firefighter stress on suicidal ideation.
Methods:
Overall, 334 firefighters completed measures of occupational stress, social support, and suicidal ideation.
Results:
At high levels of social support, no association was observed between occupational stress and suicidal ideation (φ = -.06, ns); however, when social support was low, occupational stress showed a positive association with suicidal ideation (φ = .16, p < .05).
Conclusions:
The association between occupational stress and suicidal ideation may be reduced by social support. Further research on this topic is warranted.