Emergency responders have been underrepresented in the literature, though it has been noted that they experience greater amounts of distress than the general public. Greater distress has been found to increase the likelihood of developing psychopathology, such as PTSD, and so identifying predictors of distress may assist in decreasing the prevalence of PTSD. Past research has found that witnessing family violence in childhood and emotion dysregulation have been associated with higher amounts of peritraumatic distress. The current study looked to investigate 9-1-1 telecommunicators specifically, and thus it was hypothesized that, among 9-1-1 telecommunicators, emotion regulation difficulties would mediate the link between witnessing family violence in childhood and duty-related peritraumatic distress. Participants were recruited from around the country to complete an extensive survey that included measures of family violence, emotion regulation, and peritraumatic distress related to the participant's worst 9-1-1 call (N = 808). Analyses revealed that the hypothesized mediation model was not significant, although significant associations were found between emotion regulation difficulties and peritraumatic distress and between witnessing family violence and peritraumatic distress. Future research is needed to explore other predictors of peritraumatic distress among 9-1-1 telecommunicators, as greater duty-related distress enhances risk for other adverse outcomes, such as PTSD and depression.B.S. (Bachelor of Science
