Policing and mental ill health are inextricably entwined. The police have a role to respond to distressed persons and depending on the circumstances act as mental health practitioners or law enforcement officers.  Policing can have an impact on the mental health of those delivering the service. Those working within policing will either experience, work alongside and/or manage colleagues with mental ill health. Therefore it is important that the attitudes of police officers and police staff to mental ill health are established. The research employs the Time to Change Survey to bench mark police attitudes against the general public. Results indicate that police officers/staff hold similar attitudes to the public. However police officers are less supportive of community based interventions. Police data portrays an organisation where mental health related stigma persists, where discussing or seeking help is avoided and having a mental health issue seen as career destroying.

Policing can be injurious to the mental health of those delivering the service. The causes can be operational, organisational or a mixture of both. Mental health related stigma is prevalent within policing; thus, help seeking is avoided. Those who do seek help are often thought to be malingerers. Managers are considered to be ill equipped to identify and support those at risk. The processes and policies that are meant to support recovery do not meet the needs of the officers and staff living and working with mental ill health. Consequently, disclosing a mental health issue is seen as career destroying.

Abstract:The study was developed in the context of Personality and Social Cognitive Theory with constructs that encapsulate non-intellective processes of academic achievement. The goal was to explore the role of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality in academic performance and to use this model as a reference point to test the incremental validity of two measures of Self-efficacy (Academic and Emotional) and an indicator of Absenteeism. Participants (N = 120) were comprised of 17-year-old male (n = 47) and female (n = 73) opportunistically sampled secondary level college students. A cross-sectional design was used to examine the relationship between the independent variables (FFM, Academic Self-efficacy, Emotional Self-efficacy, and Absenteeism) and the outcome variable, Grade Points Average (GPA). Correlation analysis found that four FFM factors and the two Self-efficacy measures were associated with GPA. In a hierarchical regression analysis, the FFM explained 22% variance on performance and the two Self-efficacy measures added 9% incremental variance followed by 3% for Absenteeism. Overall, the non-intellective constructs explain a substantial 34% variance on achievement and provide focal points for theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical evaluation. Moreover, they are suggestive of the pathways and processes that support learning, augment ability, and enhance achievement.

Research on personality in the educational context has primarily focused on quantitative approaches, so this study used a mixed methods approach to capture the boarder aspects of students' learning processes. Goals were to ensure that student responses were reliable and normal (quantitative data), and to examine qualitative reflections on students' personality scores for breadth and depth in the context of learning and achievement. To facilitate these goals, undergraduate psychology students (N ¼ 307) completed a 50-item version of a measure of the Five Factor Model in a seminar and subsequently wrote a personal evaluation of their scores with reference to academic achievement. Quantitative analysis demonstrated that the data were reliable and demonstrated individual differences. Qualitative analysis was clustered around six themes-five personality factors and students' reflections on their overall scores. Students overwhelmingly endorsed their scores on the measure by presenting their reflective experiential narrative. Moreover, they reflected on personal strengths and challenges as they set goals for educational development. This facilitated enhanced awareness of qualities that complement ability, support learning and enhance achievement. Other outcomes included enhanced self-awareness and self-presentation and awareness of the role of traits in educational, social and emotionality aspects of their student experience.

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