Can Firefighters’ Mental Health Be Predicted by Emotional Intelligence and Proactive Coping?

Abstract

The present study explores emotional intelligence and proactive coping as possible protective factors for both a group of paid-professional firefighters (n = 94) and a group of similar comparison participants (n = 91). Each respondent completed the Impact of Events Scale-Revised, Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, Emotional Intelligence Scale, and Proactive Coping Scale. Using an exploratory/liberal Type 1 error rate (α ≤ .10), our results suggested that for firefighters emotional intelligence negatively predicted self-reported traumatic stress (β = −.198), while proactive coping negatively predicted several other mental health symptoms (obsessive-compulsive β = −.192, depression β = −.220, anxiety β = −.295). For the comparison participants, the pattern of results was substantially different from the firefighters in that emotional intelligence negatively predicted several mental health symptoms (interpersonal sensitivity β = − .465, depression β = − .239, anxiety β = −.269, hostility β = −.349) and proactive coping only predicted a lack of psychoticism (β = −.216).