Profiling and predicting help-seeking behaviour among trauma-exposed UK firefighters

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Firefighter Mental Health

Background:

• Firefighters often underutilize available psychological support services.
• Understanding help-seeking behavior is critical for developing effective support systems for this population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To profile and identify distinct patterns of help-seeking behavior among UK firefighters.
• To characterize these patterns in relation to demographic factors and psychological variables.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was distributed to 1282 UK firefighters.
• Latent class analysis identified help-seeking profiles, followed by multinomial logistic regression and ANOVA to analyze class composition and associated variables.

Main Results:

• Five distinct help-seeking classes were identified, with the largest group (48.7%) primarily seeking spousal support.
• Seeking external professional psychological support was associated with being single and having fewer years of service.
• Reliance on spousal support correlated with the lowest alcohol consumption, while seeking only friend/colleague support was linked to highest alcohol consumption and lower emotional expressiveness.

Conclusions:

• Significant variations in help-seeking behavior exist among UK firefighters.
• Spousal support appears to be a protective factor, associated with lower alcohol consumption.
• Identifying at-risk profiles, such as those relying solely on informal support and exhibiting emotional suppression, is crucial for targeted mental health interventions.