THE TERTIARY VICTIMS: RISK FACTORS AND PROTECTION

In the last ten years the Psychology of Emergency has been accredited in Italy as an important field of application. This research has spread throughout the country investigating the coping strategies, resilience and the ability to infer the intentions and emotions of the emergency workers. The research involved 381 rescuers (M = 55%, M = 45%) related to both professionals and volunteers to the area of emergency medical technician who recruited via the internet (mean age 34 years, SD = 8.13). Three self-report tests were administered: RSA, MET, COPE-60. The average age of service is about 7 years (SD = 99.1). From the correlation analysis it showed that the avoidance strategies correlate negatively with all RSA size, for which the subjects are able to adaptively cope with highly stressful situations. Interesting data is the average MET score (23.0, ds = 5.74). The participants, however, manage to fill this deficit through the implementation of functional coping strategies such as orientation to the problem and positive attitudes. The results show a statistically significant difference between the Professionals and the Volunteers, the professionals have the highest future perceptions of the volunteers (F = 4.64; p <0.01) (MP = 15.28; MV = 13.40). Furthermore, social skills and family support are also higher in professionals (F = 5.06; p <0.01) (MP = 20.13 MV = 16.99); F = 6.06; p <0.05) (MP = 17.77 MV = 16.11). The results show that despite the work in highly stressful situations, the operators are able to self-regulate and prevent possible clinical outbreaks through the use of adaptive strategies and skills.