Sense of community and its relationship to emotional detachment in Australasian paramedics

Background:There was a perceived gap in knowledge around the emotional detachment strategies used by paramedics to cope with stress. Therefore, this study investigated adaptive and dysfunctional emotional detachment in paramedics currently working in Australia and New Zealand and explored if and how sense of community (SOC) relates to emotional detachment. Methods: A quantitative survey combined three subscales: the detached coping subscale of the Coping Styles Questionnaire; the dysfunctional detachment subscale of the Relationship Profile Test; and the Brief Sense of Community Scale. Results were calculated using descriptive and correlational statistical analysis using IBM TM SPSS TM (v.27) statistics software. Results: The survey collected 335 total responses (282 complete, 53 partial) from New Zealand (209) and Australia (115), including 159 females, 164 males, and 2 gender-diverse participants. On average, females ( M = 22.91 ± 7.02) scored significantly lower ( P ≤ .001) on adaptive detachment than males ( M = 26.31± 6.80). No other statistically significant results were found between demographic categories. Total SOC scores correlated positively with adaptive detachment scores ( r = .188; P = .002) and negatively with dysfunctional detachment scores ( r = −.279; P ≤ .001), indicating a relationship between SOC and emotional detachment. Of the four dimensions, emotional connection ( r = .213; P ≤ .001), membership ( r = .199; P = .001), and needs fulfilment ( r = .136; P = .023) were statistically significant factors for adaptive detachment. All dimensions were statistically associated with dysfunctional detachment, specifically needs fulfilment ( r = −.253; P ≤ .001), membership ( r = −.256; P ≤ .001), emotional connection ( r = −.222; P ≤ .001), and influence ( r = −.190; P = .001). Conclusions: Female paramedics are a demographic likely to benefit from adaptive detachment techniques. SOC scores correlated positively with adaptive detachment scores and negatively with dysfunctional detachment scores, implying a supportive relationship between SOC dimensions and detachment-based coping styles in Australasian paramedics.