Resilience and distress tolerance among firefighters: Associations with anxiety and depression symptoms

Firefighters are often exposed to chronic stress and potentially traumatic events given the nature of their occupational demands. As a result, they are at a higher conditional vulnerability for anxiety and depression. Thus, given the unique stressors experienced by firefighters, it is important to understand psychological factors related to anxiety and depression symptoms to inform targeted intervention efforts for this high-risk population. We modeled individual differences in resilience via distress tolerance (DT) and distress overtolerance (DO) in terms of anxiety and depression among 273 firefighters (92.3 % men; M_age = 40.4, SD = 9.7) recruited from a large metropolitan area in the southern United States (U.S.). Results revealed statistically significant indirect effects of resilience on anxiety via both DT (b = -0.10, SE = 0.03, 95 % CI[-0.17, -0.04]) and DO (β = -0.14, SE = 0.04, 95 % CI[-0.21, -0.07]). Resilience demonstrated a statistically significant indirect effect on depression through DO (β = -0.18, SE = 0.04, 95 % CI[-0.26-0.11]); however, this effect was not statistically significant for DT. Thus, both DT and DO underlie the association between resilience and anxiety; whereas only DO is relevant to the association between resilience and depression among firefighters. Future research could build upon this work using longitudinal methodology and targeted intervention tactics for DT and DO to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms among firefighters.