This research identifies that resilience in professionals increases over time as well as awareness of demands. It is possible to specialize treatment programs to prevent the effects of burnout and anxiety, depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms in healthcare personnel, including the variables identified in this study that are associated with said symptoms.

The hardy personality or hardiness concept is defined in scientific papers as a personal resource to lessen the negative effects of stressful events on health and to protect it from job strain. Although it is common to find studies on the assessment of this concept in different occupational samples, research in police officers is scarce (even though officers are exposed to stressful events on a daily basis). Moreover, the lack of methodological rigor in the assessment of hardiness promotes the accomplishment of studies that establish the proper use of assessment instruments. The objective of this article is to determine the psychometric characteristics of the Occupational Hardiness Questionnaire (OHQ) n a sample of Spanish police officers. This is a cross-sectional study with 212 officers from Madrid, Spain. Descriptive analysis, correlations, confirmatory factor analysis, and regression analysis were performed. The results showed appropriate validity and reliability, with values for Cronbach's alpha ranging between .81 and .87. As a main conclusion, it can be said that the instrument can be recommended for the assessment of personality hardiness; in addition, its proper application in police officers is confirmed. Public Significance StatementThis study establishes the appropriate psychometric characteristics of the Occupational Hardiness Questionnaire to assess hardy personality within the police collective. It provides relevant data on these professionals, which is valuable considering the scarce studies on hardy personality in police officers. Hardy personality is a variable that protects individuals against stress and disease.

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There is scarce research on stress in Spanish police officers and on the use of instruments to assess this construct in this professional group. In Spain, the DECORE questionnaire has been one of the most used. Nevertheless, it had not been previously applied to police officers. The aim of this study was to analyze both the construct validity and the reliability of the original model of 44 items. A cross-sectional design and a non-probabilistic quota sampling were used. A total of 223 Spanish police officers participated. 202 police personnel were men (90.6%) and 21 were women (9.4%). The average age was 41 years old (SD = 7.52). These police officers answered the DECORE questionnaire. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out. The results showed an unsatisfactory adjustment using the original model of 44 items. A final solution of 21 items and four factors was formulated with both suitable validity and reliability indexes. In this model, 23 items that did not weigh highly in any of the four factors were removed. The DECORE-21 questionnaire is recommended to assess work-related stress in police officers.

The Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire (hereinafter, ERIQ) has been largely used worldwide to assess job stress, but it has not yet been applied in Spanish police. The objective of this study was to examine the construct validity and the internal consistency of the ERIQ in police officers. A cross-sectional study was carried out, using a nonprobability sampling (quota). A total of 217 Spanish police officers participated, 192 men (88.47%) and 25 women (11.53%). The mean age was 41 years (SD = 7.51). These police officers completed the ERIQ together with some other questionnaires (DECORE-21, MBI, GHQ and STAI) in order to provide evidence for validity based on the relationships to other constructs. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed and a matrix of correlations with the rest of constructs was created. The results showed an appropriate fit to the original model consisting of three scales. In addition, the scales of the ERIQ presented the expected relationship with the other constructs. The ERIQ is a valid instrument for assessing occupational stress in Spanish police officers and can improve the interventions in this professional group.