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The Impact of Events Scale (IES)/Impact of Events Scale – Revised (IES‐R) is arguably one of the most well known tools used to assess post‐traumatic symptomatology. The background literature reveals a significant gap with respect to the structural properties of the IES/IES‐R when used with emergency service populations. In response to these identified gaps, this paper aims to provide an evaluation of the structural properties of the three‐factor IES‐R when used specifically with a firefighting sample.

Responses to IES‐R for a sample of paid‐professional firefighters (n=94) and a sample of similar comparison participants (n=91) were evaluated for support of the suggested IES‐R subscales – i.e. hyperarousal, avoidance and intrusions. Responses for both groups were entered into a three‐factor maximum likelihood factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation.

The results provide further support for the use of these subscales when the IES‐R is employed with a community sample. However, the factor structure for the three suggested subscales was not supported for the firefighters' responses. With the firefighting sample, some items for the intrusion subscale loaded as expected, but no discernible pattern was evident for the hyperarousal or avoidance subscales. Given the lack of support for a three‐factor structure with the firefighting sample, scree plot analysis was used to suggest that a two‐factor solution may provide the best fit solution. The two‐factor solution revealed a construct described as general “post‐traumatic symptomatology” and a potential second factor described as “sleep”.

The author suggests a conservative approach to using the IES‐R with first responder samples, in particular firefighters, and recommends the use of an overall score in place of subscale scores. This recommendation is suggested as a temporary approach until additional research can be completed to further evaluate the present lack of support for the three IES‐R subscales when used with a firefighting sample.

Drawing on survey data from South Korean police officers, the purpose of this paper is to explore the mediation effects of coping self-efficacy and social support in the relationship between the impact of traumatic events and resilience. Additionally, the moderation effects were assessed to examine how this relationship varies by the state of police officers’ mental health.

Both multiple mediation and multiple group models within the structural equation modeling framework were adopted to assess the proposed mediating and moderating effects.

Traumatic events affect resilience not just directly but also indirectly through mediating factors such as coping self-efficacy and social support. These patterns are more pronounced in the high-risk mental health group than in the normal group.

If exposure to traumatic events were an unavoidable aspect of police work, helping officers build resilience as a general capacity to overcome stressful situations would be an effective strategy to prevent many negative consequences associated with the traumatic events. This study examined specific causal mechanisms linking the impact of traumatic events to resilience to better understand the process of developing resilience among police officers.

Instead of further examining the relationship between impact of traumatic events and other physical and mental outcomes, this study attempted to expand the current literature by identifying important mediating and moderating mechanisms that reduce the negative influences of traumatic events on resilience.

Coping style has been examined across a variety of stressful encounters, but surprisingly little is known about coping in the emergency or disaster context. Examines coping strategies and impact of events in emergency workers who generally have not been exposed to major events in the course of their emergency role. The profile of scores suggests that emergency workers are problem‐focused and are less inclined to assuage problems through emotion‐focused coping, thus supporting the popular notion of emergency workers as task‐oriented and committed to action. Discusses the extent to which this profile may enhance wellbeing and prevent stress symptoms following emergency events.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of coping style, self-efficacy, resilience and emotional reaction of trauma-related intrusions in young offenders.

This is a quantitative study using questionnaires. The sample was 152 young offenders in custody who were approached in their residential hall. Upon agreeing to participate they were given 24 hours to complete the questionnaire pack and returned these to the researcher at a designated time and place.

Over 90 per cent of the sample indicated at least one traumatic event; 33.6 per cent indicated eight or more. Number of traumatic events did not impact on self-efficacy, resilience or coping strategy used. The type of coping strategy did not significantly impact on emotional reaction to intrusions across trauma groups. Participants with higher self-efficacy demonstrated greater problem-focused coping and less emotional reaction to intrusions. Participants with greater resilience scores utilised more problem and emotion-focused coping and experienced less emotional reaction to their intrusions. Resilience was predicted by self-efficacy and emotional reaction to intrusions.

Professionals working with young offenders with trauma-related intrusions should focus on building strengths in the areas of problem-focused coping, self-efficacy and resilience.

This paper adds to the literature on trauma in male young offenders by looking at psychological factors which could be developed upon to improve ability to manage intrusive thoughts.

Interactions between local people and guests/visitors are the main elements of tourism experience. And local festivals, considered as a significant part of festival tourism, are quite important in this context. Though many studies have been conducted about interaction between local residents and guests tourists, emotional solidarity remains as a concept which has not yet been studied much in tourism literature on local festivals. The aim of this study is to examine emotional solidarity in tourism festival literature and to determine the relationships between perceptions of local people related to social impacts of festivals and emotional solidarity they feel for guests/visitors.

In line with this purpose, a quantitative approach was adopted, and 19th weaving, culture and handicrafts festival held in Buldan was chosen to be studied as it is an important festival for local people dwelling in Buldan, Denizli province located in Aegean Region in Turkey. The study data were obtained through questionnaire method conducted with Buldan residents during the 19th festival (June, 28th–30th, 2019). The sample was determined with random sampling method.

The data were analyzed via factor and regression analyses. As a result of factor analysis, social impacts of the festivals were grouped under 6 factors (under 3 subfactors of social benefits: communal benefits, cultural–educational benefits, social unity benefits; under 3 subfactors of social costs: concerns related to social resources, concerns related to life quality and concerns related to social order).

Local people's perceptions of social impacts of festivals must be determined in order to find their impacts on emotional solidarity, and deficiencies must be remedied. Local governments who organize festivals to invigorate local economies usually try to attract more visitors with the purpose of maximizing economic impacts of festivals, and this is done without placing much importance on the social problems and social change that may arise in the future (Crandall, 1994).

Relationships were determined between emotional solidarity and residents' perceptions towards social and cultural–educational benefits as well as their concerns related to social resources and life quality.

This paper aims to evaluate the subjective experience with associated clinical and health effects on workers subjected to persistent harassment in the workplace. The study also attempts to explore an a priori hypothesised personality/clinical effects model of workplace bullying, identifying the relationships between relevant variables using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The sample represents 100 individual psychological assessments conducted by professional psychologists at an Anti‐bullying research and resource centre. The quantitative results are based on robust psychometric inventories. The conceptual models were tested using the software LISREL 8.7.

Results indicate elevated overall psychometric scores on all psychological and physical health inventories. The constructed a priori model was conceived based on grounded theoretical literature which assessed the moderating impact of individual factors such as personality on the severity of clinical effect, thought to be as a result of workplace bullying. Using a strictly confirmatory approach, however, all tested models were not adequate fits.

Results of this study have implications for the prevention and intervention of workplace bullying both of which need to be intensified in order to minimise the physical and psychological ill effects of victimisation in the workplace. One of the key messages of this study is that the severity of the clinical effect may not relate to a person's character, but rather to the traumatic experience of bullying itself. The findings suggest that action is needed at an organizational level as explanations with regards to the intensity of psychological health outcomes may not be found in the constitution of one's personality.

This is a unique study that looks specifically at personality as a potential moderating factor of psychological and physical health in relation to workplace bullying.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of social capital with the negative externalities associated with stress, or the psychological and physiological strains experienced by police officers.

Using data collected in 1999 from a survey of Baltimore Police officers designed to examine questions about the relationship between police stress and domestic violence in police families and using multivariate regression analysis, the paper focuses on five different proxies for stress and strain, and two proxies for social capital and conducting several robustness checks.

Results show that an increase in social capital is significantly correlated to a decrease in the level of strain, in the psychological, physical, burnout and health areas.

While this study examines the social capital/strain relationship with US officers, more research is needed, as these findings may not extrapolate well into other national settings. It may also be interesting to further explore sub‐cultures within departments. Additionally, the data may be dated and, as major changes and events have occurred since the survey, a newer study of officers would be needed to observe whether these changes have had significant impact.

From a policy perspective, the findings suggest that stress reduction programs should actively engage employees to build stronger social networks.

This study comprehensively examines the ability of social capital at negating the impacts of strains, and significantly reduces the impact of major trauma events. This paper adds to the literature as there are few multivariate analyses of the social capital/strain relationship.

The purpose of the present study is to examine associations between post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and salivary cortisol parameters.

PTSD symptoms and cortisol responses were measured in a random sample of 100 police officers. The impact of event scale (IES) categorized into subclinical, mild, moderate and severe levels was employed to measure PTSD symptoms. Cortisol was analyzed from saliva samples over a period of three days and included an awakening response, high protein lunch challenge, whole day (diurnal), and a dexamethasone suppression test (DST).

Officers in moderate and severe PTSD symptom categories had higher mean awakening cortisol values. A significant sample‐time by PTSD interaction (p=0.008) was found for awakening cortisol responses. Officers in the severe PTSD symptom category showed a blunted response to the cortisol protein meal challenge compared to those in lower PTSD categories. Diurnal cortisol levels suggested an increasing trend across subclinical to severe PTSD categories respectively (p=0.15 test for trend). DST ratios were lower in moderate and severe PTSD symptom categories (6.86 and 8.03 respectively) than in the subclinical and mild categories (9.32 and 10.43 respectively).

The sample was not representative of all police in the USA. These results suggest that associations between psychological trauma symptoms and dysregulation of cortisol patterns may exist and could possibly affect future health outcomes in police officers.

Exposure to trauma and disaster events emphasizes the need to further investigate the health impact of PTSD on police personnel as well as other first responder groups.

This article will not only be of interest to those in the police service but to the general public. The present study may serve to provide a guide for larger police population investigations on PTSD and physiological impact.

Trauma-focussed cognitive-behaviour therapy (TF-CBT) is the most effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals who present with complex PTSD are among the most complex and challenging patients seen by intellectual disability psychology and psychiatry services. The purpose of this paper is to study TF-CBT intervention for people with intellectual disabilities and complex PTSD.

Three groups of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) presenting with complex PTSD (n=3, n=5 and n=4) were treated using a 12-week manualised intervention adapted from a procedure routinely used in adult mental health services. Participants completed the Impact of Event Scale as adapted for people with intellectual disabilities (IES-ID) before and after the intervention, and interviews conducted to ascertain their experiences of the group were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

The ten participants who completed the intervention showed a 27 per cent decrease in median Impact of Event Scale Intellectual Disabilities scores, equivalent to a medium effect size (d=0.50). Five themes were identified from the interviews: being listened to; it is nice to know you are not the only one; being in a group can be stressful; the importance of feeling safe; achieving and maintaining change. Participants also provided constructive feedback to promote improvements to the manual.

A feasibility study followed by methodologically robust clinical trials is now needed to establish the effectiveness of the intervention and its utility in clinical practice.

This small study has confirmed the potential of TF-CBT as an intervention for extremely vulnerable individuals with ID who present with complex PTSD.

The findings indicate that a group intervention is both feasible for and acceptable to adults with ID.

To date, no study has investigated the effectiveness and feasibility of a TF-CBT group intervention for adults with mild ID.

Life‐long trauma histories and PTSD symptoms in 26 life sentence prisoners detained in a British Category B prison were examined. Prisoners were categorised on the basis of whether index offence violence resulted in human fatality, and whether reactive or instrumental violence was used in the index offence. Symptom measures included the Impact of Events Scale ‐ Revised and the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale. Eight prisoners (31%) met all DSM‐IV criteria for current PTSD diagnosis. Partial PTSD was common in the remaining prisoners. Number of PTSD symptoms was unrelated to both the act of killing and the nature of violence. The rate of trauma prior to index offences was positively related to intrusive, avoidant and hyperarousal symptoms attributed by the prisoners to their index offence. The results suggest that prior trauma sensitised prisoners' traumatic reactions to their offences.