Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers
Background First responders encounter chronic exposure to stressful and potentially traumatic experiences due to the nature of their jobs. First responders are also often confronted with the dilemma of following organisational protocols and/or using personal judgment to respond in high stress situat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20008066.2025.2510019 |
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| author | Savannah J. Woller Kayla E. Hall Shelby J. McGrew Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher Sonya B. Norman Anka A. Vujanovic |
| author_facet | Savannah J. Woller Kayla E. Hall Shelby J. McGrew Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher Sonya B. Norman Anka A. Vujanovic |
| author_sort | Savannah J. Woller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background First responders encounter chronic exposure to stressful and potentially traumatic experiences due to the nature of their jobs. First responders are also often confronted with the dilemma of following organisational protocols and/or using personal judgment to respond in high stress situations. Thus, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and moral injury (MI), defined as the negative impact of witnessing, perpetrating, or failing to prevent an act that violates one’s moral beliefs, are potential psychological responses to potentially traumatic events.Objective The present study evaluated MI severity among firefighters, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, and dispatchers with and without probable PTSD.Method The sample included 283 personnel (Mage = 46.53; 83.7% male) from nine fire departments, primarily in the western US.Results Consistent with hypotheses, first responders who met screening criteria for probable PTSD, as compared to those who did not, reported significantly higher MI total scores, MI-shame subscale scores, and MI-trust-violation subscale scores, with large effect sizes (η2’s ≤ .22).Conclusions Results suggest that MI may play a role in the characterisation of the clinical picture of first responders. Future studies should continue to evaluate associations between PTSD and MI in first responders, using interview-based and longitudinal methodologies, to better inform specialised clinical interventions. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-46f7d909a91047efa50700fa6e8ebc8d |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2000-8066 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
| spelling | doaj-art-46f7d909a91047efa50700fa6e8ebc8d2025-08-20T03:10:47ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEuropean Journal of Psychotraumatology2000-80662025-12-0116110.1080/20008066.2025.2510019Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchersSavannah J. Woller0Kayla E. Hall1Shelby J. McGrew2Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher3Sonya B. Norman4Anka A. Vujanovic5Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USADepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USADepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USADepartment of Decision and Information Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USANational Center for PTSD, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USADepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USABackground First responders encounter chronic exposure to stressful and potentially traumatic experiences due to the nature of their jobs. First responders are also often confronted with the dilemma of following organisational protocols and/or using personal judgment to respond in high stress situations. Thus, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and moral injury (MI), defined as the negative impact of witnessing, perpetrating, or failing to prevent an act that violates one’s moral beliefs, are potential psychological responses to potentially traumatic events.Objective The present study evaluated MI severity among firefighters, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, and dispatchers with and without probable PTSD.Method The sample included 283 personnel (Mage = 46.53; 83.7% male) from nine fire departments, primarily in the western US.Results Consistent with hypotheses, first responders who met screening criteria for probable PTSD, as compared to those who did not, reported significantly higher MI total scores, MI-shame subscale scores, and MI-trust-violation subscale scores, with large effect sizes (η2’s ≤ .22).Conclusions Results suggest that MI may play a role in the characterisation of the clinical picture of first responders. Future studies should continue to evaluate associations between PTSD and MI in first responders, using interview-based and longitudinal methodologies, to better inform specialised clinical interventions.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20008066.2025.2510019Traumamoral injuryPTSDfirst respondersfirefightersemergency medical services |
| spellingShingle | Savannah J. Woller Kayla E. Hall Shelby J. McGrew Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher Sonya B. Norman Anka A. Vujanovic Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers European Journal of Psychotraumatology Trauma moral injury PTSD first responders firefighters emergency medical services |
| title | Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers |
| title_full | Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers |
| title_fullStr | Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers |
| title_short | Examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters, emergency medical services personnel, and emergency dispatchers |
| title_sort | examining moral injury and posttraumatic stress among firefighters emergency medical services personnel and emergency dispatchers |
| topic | Trauma moral injury PTSD first responders firefighters emergency medical services |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20008066.2025.2510019 |
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