Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Προαγωγή ψυχικής υγείας - Πρόληψη ψυχιατρικών διαταραχώνLibrary of the School of Health Sciences
Supervisors info:
Κωνσταντίνος Ψάρρος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής Ψυχιατρικής, Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Βασίλειος Μασδράκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής Ψυχιατρικής, Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Χρήστος Θελερίτης, Ψυχίατρος, Ιατρική, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Η ύπαρξη ψυχοπαθολογικών εκδηλώσεων στους Ελεγκτές Εναέριας Κυκλοφορίας και η επίπτωσή τους στη διαχείριση του στρες, στο βαθμό συγκέντρωσης και στις εκτελεστικές ικανότητες.
Translated title:
Psychopathological symptoms in Air Traffic Controllers and their effect on stress management, concentration level and executive functions
Summary:
The air traffic controller (ATC) profession requires skills such as high degree of concentration, attention and executive functioning. Moreover, good stress management is a prerequisite for working under pressure with heavy workload and occurrence of critical incidents, while making at the same time accurate and rapid decisions. The complexity of the ATC tasks can potentially cause physical and mental exhaustion to the air traffic controllers interfering with their cognitive functioning and their degree of concentration.
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether possible existence of psychopathology among air traffic controllers, as well as poor management of stress, can affect their ability to perform their tasks by impacting negatively on their executive functioning.
The study involved a total of 62 air traffic controllers working in all three units, Tower, Approach and ACC.
Participants were initially evaluated on their executive functions and more specifically on task switching and response inhibition by two neuropsychological tests, the Trail Making Test (TMT) and the Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT). They then completed two more tests, the SCL-90-R a self-report symptom inventory assessing psychopathology and the Brief-COPE, a self- completed questionnaire measuring stress coping strategies.
The results of the neuropsychological tests showed that participants on TMT performed better than the general population both in the first as well as the second part of the test.
In SCWT, mean values in all three conditions were within the normal range; the values of the third condition and the Stroop interference were placed in the high end of the normative values. In SCL-90-R test higher medians were scored for Obsessive- compulsive and paranoid ideation. However, all medians were within the normal range. Anxiety and phobic anxiety had the lowest scores.
In Brief-COPE test analysis of variance indicated that the majority of the sample was coping with stress in a positive way. However, a significant percentage of the sample seemed to be seeking support from their colleagues, or using avoidance strategies.
No correlation (Spearman ρ) was detected between TMT scale or SCWT variables with the psychometric SCL-90-R tool.
In conclusion, the results of this study showed that air traffic controllers did not exhibit psychopathological symptoms and that their executive functions were of high level compared to the general population. Furthermore, our results indirectly indicated that the initial screening of air traffic controllers during their selection process achieves the objective for which it is performed; to select highly competent and resilient to stress people.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Air traffic controllers, Psychopathology, Executive functions, Neuropsychological tests, Stress coping
