Effects of traumatic stress on firefighters' world assumptions.

on world assumptions related to traumatic exposure in other situations (i.e., those who may, or may not, be directly affected but nonetheless experience the event; see, e.g., Buchanan, Anderson, Uhlemann, & Horwitz, 2006). In particular, the construct of world assumptions has yet to be considered with first responders, an explicit population of workers regu-larly exposed to traumatic events. There is anecdotal literature that focuses on the stress reactions of emergency workers and suggests that the most common reactions to stress are men-tal health problems, alcohol and drug abuse, depres-sion, and anxiety (see, e.g., Dernocoeur, 1995; Powell, 1995). Alternatively, to our knowledge, there is no current literature that has addressed the