Cognitive appraisal, emotional responses, and emotion regulation in firefighters' occupational stress-A pilot study

Firefighting is a highly demanding profession, involving frequent exposure to stress and life-threatening situations. This pilot study investigates firefighters' cognitive and emotional responses underlying problem-solving and emotion regulation during stressful operations. It explores how and to what extent firefighters experience their thoughts and emotions, focusing on subjective experiences of valence and physiological arousal, and whether they perceive their thoughts and emotions as helpful or hindrances. Additionally, we examine habitual emotion regulation strategies, accounting for age and work experience.

Seventy-eight firefighters participated in structured interviews based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques and completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ).

Fire accidents were reported as the most stressful operations (35%), with cognitive appraisal oriented to stress-threat (31%). Participants experienced mixed emotions (27%) rather than a single dominant emotion and consistently prioritised rescuing individuals as a problem-solving tendency (49%). Despite high subjective experience of bodily changes and physiological arousal, thoughts and emotions were generally perceived as positive and helpful. Cognitive reappraisal was the most frequently used emotion regulation strategy both during stressful operations (23%) and as a habitual tendency, while suppression was less common and negatively correlated with age. Age explained approximately 8% of the variance in suppression.

By using a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) framework, this pilot study demonstrates new insight into firefighters' underlying cognitive and emotional processes during critical operations. Significant strengths and limitations, as well as suggestions for further research are discussed.