Citation

van Reemst L, Jongerling J. Aggressive Behav. 2024; 50(4): e22160.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.22160

PMID

38889343

Abstract

Some emergency responders are more often exposed to workplace aggression than others. Victimological theories and previous studies suggest that characteristics of the target may predict exposure to workplace aggression. This paper examines the relationship between negative affect, hostile attribution, dominance, empathy, self-evaluations, and exposure to workplace aggression among emergency responders. Emergency medical workers, firefighters and police officers in the Netherlands filled in a survey during three measurement occasions (6 months apart).

RESULTS from the three occupational groups were presented separately.

RESULTS suggest that some psychological characteristics are related to exposure to workplace aggression, but that the contribution of these characteristics in the explanation of exposure to workplace aggression is limited. In addition, although differences between occupational groups could not be statistically tested due to differences in the factor structure of exposure to workplace aggression between the three groups of emergency response, differences seem to occur in models between emergency response contexts. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Adult; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Longitudinal Studies; Netherlands; Empathy; Hostility; victimization; *Aggression/psychology; *Emergency Responders/psychology; emergency responders; Firefighters/psychology; first response; Police/psychology; target characteristics; workplace aggression; Workplace/psychology