ORIGINAL ARTICLE Occupational Stress and Psychological Well-Being in Emergency Services Mohd Dahlan A. Malek, 1 Adi Fahrudin 2 and Ida Shafinaz Mohd Kamil 3 1 School of Psychology and Social Work, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; 2 Bandung College of Social Welfare, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; and 3 School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Sources of occupational stress and their impact on job satisfaction and psychological well-being were examined in a questionnaire survey of 617 Malaysian firefighters. The role of coping strategies and work motivation as moderating factors were also tested. Sources of occupational stress had significant reverse correlations with job satisfaction and well-being. The hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the moderating effect of work motivation and coping strategies on job satisfaction and psychological well-being. The result suggested that coping strategies and work motivation are one of the potential moderating variables between sources of stress and job satisfaction. Keywords coping; firefighter; job satisfaction; stress; well-being; work motivation doi:10.1111/j.1753-1411.2009.00030.x Introduction Every year, fires and other emergencies take lives and destroy properties. Firefighters help to protect the public against these threats by rapidly responding to emergency calls. In the course of their work, they can be exposed to physical, chemical and biological hazards. They also face the risk of psychological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), resulting from witnessing traumatic events. In common with other less risky occupations, they can experience occupational stress relating to their work conditions (i.e. shift work) or other organizational or career issues. While there is extensive literature on stress in policing (e.g. Alexander & Walker, 1994; Brown & Heidensohn, 2001; Kircaldy, Brown, & Cooper, 1988), only a few empiri- cal studies have systematically examined the causes and effects of stress in firefighters’ work. Most of these have concentrated on the specific effects of distressing events causing PTSD (Al-Naser & Everly, 1999; Corneil, 1993; Corneil, Beaton, Murphy, Johnson, & Pike, 1999) rather than the more general issue of occupational stress and its effects. This Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mohd Dahlan H.A. Malek PhD, School of Psychol- ogy and Social Work, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88999 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Email: dahlanam@ ums.edu.my Asian Social Work and Policy Review 3 (2009) 143–154 Ó 2009 The Authors Journal compilation Ó 2009 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd 143