ACTIVE COPING MODERATES THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PTSD SYMPTOM CLUSTERS AND TREATMENT SEEKING AMONG LAW ENFORCEMENT

Endemic within their occupational obligations, law enforcement officers experience a myriad of critical incidents (Weiss et al., 2010) leading to high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Fox et al., 2013). Despite this, within the law enforcement culture, mental health and treatment seeking are stigmatized (Soomra & Yanos, 2018) leading to low levels of service utilization (Berg, Hem, Lau, & Ekeberg, 2006). However, the amount of distress caused by PTSD symptoms appears to increase treatment seeking (Stip & Letourneau, 2009). Specifically, certain PTSD symptom clusters may cause greater distress and impairment, resulting in a greater likelihood of treatment seeking. Additionally, an active coping style, which involves persons seeking to reduce a stressor to change or improve their circumstances, may result in greater treatment seeking behaviors. Therefore, using the Social Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (Andersen & Davidson, 2007) as the driving framework, this study sought to determine how active coping may affect the association between the severity of PTSD symptoms (at the total symptom level and symptom cluster level), and treatment seeking behavior in a law enforcement population. The current study consisted of 152 law enforcement officers with an average age of 41.08 years and with 84.20% males. Binary logistic regression analyses explored the moderating effects of active coping on the association between the severity of each of the PTSD symptom clusters (i.e. intrusive, avoidant, negative alterations to mood and cognitions, and alterations in arousal and reactivity) and treatment seeking. Results revealed that active coping acted as a moderator of the negative alterations in cognitions and mood cluster (p = .01) as well as the alterations in arousal and reactivity cluster on treatment seeking (p = .05). These findings can inform interventions, psychoeducation, and trainings in an effort to increase treatment utilization among law enforcement officers.