Intervention Perspectives of Public Safety Personnel (PSP) Families
Date
2022-02
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Abstract
In the line of duty, public safety personnel (PSP) experience operational stress that may negatively impact their lives at home. While targeted psychosocial interventions are offered to PSP, research indicates that PSP often turn to their spouse/partners for informal psychosocial support (Carleton et al., 2019). Accordingly, spouse/partners may experience secondary stress related to their PSP partner’s occupation while simultaneously managing their family’s needs. Spouse/partners may benefit from resources and support, although no evidence-based intervention programs are presently offered for their unique needs. For the purposes of informing the development of a PSP family program, the current study collected 131 survey responses (51 female; Mage = 42.57) from both PSP and spouse/partners to explore relative strengths and needs. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three underlying dimensions in survey item responses: Parenting and Communication (F1), Family/Peer Support (F2), and Operational Stress and Resources (F3). Analysis of variance examined differences between factors on several demographic variables, including PSP/PSP spouse, sex, police/non-police, family size (i.e., number of children), and municipality size. Spouse/partners consistently expressed greater intervention needs compared to PSP in F1, F2, and F3 scores; female respondents expressed greater intervention needs compared to male respondents in F1 and F2 scores; no differences were found when comparing police to non-police on any factor scores. Planned comparisons yielded between-group differences based on family size and municipality. Families with no children expressed greater intervention needs compared to families with three or more children in F2 scores. Respondents from towns or smaller municipalities expressed greater intervention needs in F1 and F2 scores compared to those residing in cities. Results are discussed in terms of family systems theory and the available literature on PSP families and similar groups.
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Keywords
first responder, public safety personnel, family systems, trauma, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, operational stress, spouse, marital, intervention, stress
Citation
Khan, K. (2022). Intervention perspectives of Public Safety Personnel (PSP) families (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.