Abstract
<p>Objective: Exposure to potentially traumatic events is common in high-risk occupations, yet only a minority of individuals develops persistent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Building on the regulatory flexibility framework, the present study examined whether trauma-related coping flexibility predicts PTSD symptoms beyond burden and ressources in an occupational context. Moreover, we tested whether the predictive value of this flexibility model is superior to a model that includes separate indices of forward-focused and trauma-focused coping.Method: Railway personnel with exposure to critical railway-related incidents (N = 444) completed measures of trauma-related burden (occupational and non-occupational trauma exposure, peritraumatic distress), social and organizational resources (e.g., social support, support availability), and trauma-related coping. PTSD symptoms as well as depressive symptoms were assessed as outcomes.Results: Trauma-related coping explained significant additional variance in PTSD symptoms beyond burden and ressources. However, model comparisons indicated that forward-focused coping was a stronger predictor than the derived flexibility index. Moreover, forward-focused coping additionally emerged as the strongest predictor across all investigated predictors. Contrary to our hypotheses, trauma-focused coping was positively associated with PTSD symptoms. A similar pattern was observed for depressive symptoms.Conclusions: Findings highlight the central role of trauma-related coping processes in occupational mental health. While results partially support the regulatory flexibility framework, they suggest that forward-focused coping may be particularly relevant for maintaining psychological functioning following occupational trauma.</p>