Royal Canadian Mounted Police cadets’ exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events during the Cadet Training Program

Katie L. Andrews; Kirby Q. Maguire; Laleh Jamshidi; Tracie O. Afifi; Jolan Nisbet; Robyn E. Shields; Taylor A. Teckchandani; Gordon J. G. Asmundson; Alain Brunet; Lisa M. Lix; Shannon Sauer-Zavala; Jitender Sareen; Terence M. Keane; J. Patrick Neary; R. Nicholas Carleton

doi:10.1002/jts.23115

Back

Royal Canadian Mounted Police cadets’ exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events during the Cadet Training Program

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Royal Canadian Mounted Police cadets’ exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events during the Cadet Training Program

Katie L. Andrews, Kirby Q. Maguire, Laleh Jamshidi, Tracie O. Afifi, Jolan Nisbet, Robyn E. Shields, Taylor A. Teckchandani, Gordon J. G. Asmundson, Alain Brunet, Lisa M. Lix, …

Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol.38(2), pp.234-246

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.23115

PMID: 39705013

Files and links (1)

pdf

Journal of Traumatic Stress - 2024 - Andrews - Royal Canadian Mounted Police cadets exposure to potentially486.38 kBDownload View

Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access

Abstract

Lifetime exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs) among Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) cadets starting the Cadet Training Program (CTP) appear lower than exposures reported by serving RCMP, but the prevalence of PPTE exposures during the CTP remains unknown. The current study assessed PPTE exposures during the CTP and examined associations with mental disorders among RCMP cadets. Participants were cadets ( n = 449, 24.7% women) from the larger RCMP Longitudinal Study who self‐reported critical incidents, PPTE exposures, and mental health disorder symptoms at pretraining and predeployment. Most participants reported no exposures to a PPTE ( n = 374, 83.3%) during the CTP. Participants who reported any PPTE exposure ( n = 75, 16.7%; i.e., direct or indirect) most commonly reported serious transport accidents, physical assault, and sudden accidental death. The most common direct PPTEs (i.e., “happened to me”) during the CTP were physical assault ( n = 13), other unwanted or uncomfortable sexual experience ( n = 11), and serious transportation accident ( n = 8). The total number of PPTE types reported at predeployment was associated with increased odds of screening positive for any mental health disorder, a OR = 1.22, 95% CI [1.01, 1.49], p = .049, and positively associated with mental health disorder symptoms, p s < .001. These results provide the first assessment of PPTE exposure among RCMP cadets during the CTP, indicating that 16.7% of cadets experience PPTEs directly or indirectly. The PPTEs reported by cadets may help inform additional opportunities to further increase safety during training.

Details

Title: Royal Canadian Mounted Police cadets’ exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events during the Cadet Training Program
Authors: Katie L. Andrews (Corresponding Author) - University of Regina
Kirby Q. Maguire - University of Regina
Laleh Jamshidi - University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Tracie O. Afifi - University of Manitoba
Jolan Nisbet - University of Regina
Robyn E. Shields - University of Regina
Taylor A. Teckchandani - University of Regina
Gordon J. G. Asmundson - University of Regina
Alain Brunet - McGill University
Lisa M. Lix - University of Manitoba
Shannon Sauer-Zavala - University of Kentucky
Jitender Sareen - University of Manitoba
Terence M. Keane - National Center for PTSD
J. Patrick Neary - University of Regina
R. Nicholas Carleton - University of Regina
Publication details: Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol.38(2), pp.234-246
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1002/jts.23115
ISSN: 1573-6598; 0894-9867
PMID: 39705013
Copyright note: © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Traumatic Stress published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Data Availability: The datasets presented in this article are not readily available due to the sensitive nature of the content and to protect the anonymity of participants. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to katie.andrews@uregina.ca.
Grant note: Government of Canada; Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Organisation Unit: Thompson Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991105737202621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

6 Record Views

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Psychiatry; Psychology, Clinical

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

Source: InCites