Social support and network conflict in firefighters and paramedics
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Updated: Nov 1, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
R D Beaton1, S A Murphy, K C Pike
1Department of Psychosocial & Community Health, School of Nursing, University of Washington, USA.
Abstract:
The relationship(s) between self-rated social support network conflict (both at work and off-work) and self-report measures of occupational stressors, job satisfaction, and health outcomes were examined in samples of currently employed professional firefighters (n = 1,730) and paramedics (n = 253). In both samples, perceived social support and network conflict at work were more strongly correlated with job satisfaction and work morale, as well as a measure of their appraised occupational stressors, than with their comparable home (off-work) satisfaction/conflict ratings. The path analysis generated suggested that, with only one exception, social support and relational conflict in the combined respondent sample could be conceptualized as direct sources of stress influencing the respondents' appraisal of their occupational stressors. The path model further suggested that firefighter/paramedics' appraisal of their occupational stressors mediated the network variables' influences on self-reported job dissatisfaction and stress symptom health outcome measures.
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