Published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Milena Kaufmann, Matthias J. Gelb, and Mareike Augsburger addressed the elevated risk of PTSD among rescue workers, focusing specifically on the understudied group of search and rescue dog handlers. While coping styles and social support are known protective factors in other rescue populations, evidence within canine teams has been limited.
The study involved 116 active voluntary rescue dog handlers who completed standardized assessments measuring resilience, sense of coherence, and societal acknowledgment, including subscales for general disapproval, familial disapproval, and recognition. Participants also reported trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms, allowing the researchers to control for traumatic experiences in their analyses.
Using linear regression analyses, the authors found that, after controlling for trauma exposure, societal acknowledgment general disapproval emerged as the only significant predictor of PTSD symptoms. This highlights the importance of how rescue workers perceive societal reactions to their work.
To further explore relationships between variables, the researchers applied two graph-based models. These models revealed that familial disapproval was linked to both recognition and general disapproval. General disapproval, together with the manageability component of sense of coherence, influenced PTSD re-experiencing symptoms indirectly through resilience.
The findings align with previous research and underscore the importance of strengthening resilience and manageability, as well as enhancing social support, in prevention programs for PTSD in canine search and rescue teams. The authors note that further research is needed to confirm model stability and replicate results, but emphasize that addressing both individual cognitive resources and social context is essential for safeguarding the mental health of human members of working dog teams.
Kaufmann, M., Gelb, M. J., & Augsburger, M. (2020). Buffering PTSD in Canine Search and Rescue Teams? Associations with Resilience, Sense of Coherence, and Societal Acknowledgment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, published August 26, 2020.
