Author:

Keywords:

critical incident, critical incidents, job-related stress, security workers, ptsd, aggression, security officers, trauma, attachment, psychological distress, rescue workers, officers, dissociation, dimensions, patterns, disaster, burnout, Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, PTSD, PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS, RESCUE WORKERS, TRAUMA, OFFICERS, DISSOCIATION, DIMENSIONS, PATTERNS, DISASTER, BURNOUT, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Social Psychology, 5203 Clinical and health psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

In this paper the authors render the results of research investigating adult attachment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of Belgian security workers. The sample contained 3 subsamples: 68 individuals who had directly experienced a critical incident, 67 individuals who indirectly went through a critical incident, and 77 individuals who had not experienced a critical incident in the last six months. The analysis of the research results shows that the secure attachment style and the three PTSD trauma symptom clusters in DSM-IV - intrusion, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal - discriminate between the three subsamples. In other words, security workers who were directly and actively confronted with a critical incident were significantly more insecurely attached and suffered significantly more from PTSD symptoms than the groups who had no or indirect experience of a critical incident. Furthermore, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely and quite efficiently used in the treatment of PTSD. Interest has been expressed in medical approaches.