Polish firefighters’ attitudes toward death

Little is known about the relation between firefighting experience and attitudes toward death. The aim of this study was therefore to examine attitudes toward death among 931 Polish firefighters (M = 36.73; SD = 8.84) in relation to their length of service and their occupational roles, which were categorized as follows: working in an operational division, managing operational divisions, and working in administrative roles. Firefighters completed online measures of attitudes toward death. Findings indicate that longer service correlated positively with death avoidance, escape acceptance and separation from the death experience, but negatively with death trivialization. Furthermore, firefighters in operational divisions scored higher on trivialization and tabooization of death and lower on neutral acceptance of death than their counterparts. The research findings reveal that firefighters exhibit positive and negative attitudes toward death, which vary based on their length of service and specific occupational roles.