Comparison of the Effectiveness of Resilience Training and Emotion Regulation on Psychological Well-being and Self-efficacy of Firefighters

Background and Objective: Firefighters are at risk of mental health deterioration due to their stressful jobs, and psychological skills training plays a positive role in this regard. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of resiliency training and emotion-regulation training on the psychological well-being and self-efficacy of firefighters. Materials and Methods: This was an experimental study with a multi-group pretest-posttest control group design. In autumn 2018, forty-five Ardabil firefighters selected by simple random sampling were randomly assigned into three groups of resiliency-training (n=15), emotion-regulation-training (n=15), and control (n=15). All three groups completed the demographic questionnaire, Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale, and General Self-Efficacy Scale (Scherer et al., 1982) in the pre-test and post-test stages. The collected data were analysed using SPSS software (version16) through the analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test. Results: Resiliency training and emotion-regulation had a significant effect on one’s psychological well-being and self-efficacy. The results of the post hoc test also indicated that the effectiveness of resiliency training and emotion-regulation on one’s self-efficacy was significantly different and resiliency training was more effective than emotion-regulation training. Conclusions: Resiliency training and emotion-regulation training were effective on the psychological well-being and self-efficacy of firefighters.