Public Safety Personnel Family Resilience: A Narrative Review

Abstract

The families of public safety personnel (PSP) face demands that are unique to these occupations. Nonstandard work, trauma exposure, and dangerous work environments affect both workers and the families who support them. This narrative review aims to identify the stressors that PSP families experience and the support and resources needed to enhance family resilience. Due to a lack of research on PSP families, this review is a necessary first step to summarizing and interpreting a diverse body of research. The studies included addressed structural and emotional work-family conflict with reference to PSP sectors. A framework from the military family resiliency literature interprets the findings. Factors influencing family functioning and the availability and accessibility of resources provide clues about the type of skills and supports that PSP families rely on. Meaning-making, collaboration, a sense of coherence, and communication were identified as themes associated with intrafamilial processes. Extrafamilial themes included public perceptions, a lack of recognition for the roles families fulfill, and the need for information and education. The results suggest that the vulnerability of PSP families is variable and extrafamilial resources in the form of formal and informal supports are necessary to enhance family resiliency.

Keywords: emotional support; family capabilities; family resiliency; family time; instrumental support; nonstandard work; public safety personnel; social support; trauma exposure; work-family conflict.

Figure 1

Diagram of narrative review search and article selection (adapted from PRISMA 2020 guidelines for systematic reviews) [34].

Figure 2

Synthesis of Public Safety Employee Family Resiliency Factors. Adapted from: Synthesis of Military Family Resilience Factors [16].