Individual and Environmental Sources of Work Stress Among Prison Officers

Abstract

Work stress has been linked to a number of negative outcomes for employees and organizations. Drawing from the Job Demand-Control (-Support) model, we examined the influences of work stress among more than 1,800 prison officers working in 45 prisons across Ohio and Kentucky. Multilevel analyses revealed that individual factors such as experiencing victimization and greater job demands were related to more stress among prison officers, whereas perceived control over inmates and support from coworkers and supervisors were associated with less stress. Facility violence was also linked to higher levels of officer stress across prisons.

Equal or not? Private versus public corrections services, programming, and climate

“…Managers’ perceptions of staff morale, resource adequacy, political tensions with state departments of corrections (DOCs), and so on, can speak to the state of things in a program or an institution. Surveys of other staff might also include foci on job stressors as well as perceived support by peers and supervisors (e.g., Lambert, Altheimer, & Hogan, ; Schaufeli & Peeters, ; Spinaris, Denhof, & Kellaway, ; Steiner & Wooldredge, ). In conjunction with role ambiguity (Cressey, ; Schaufeli & Peeters, ), these factors can impact job performance aside from staff members’ personal values regarding criminal offenders.…”

Prevalência e fatores associados à violência no ambiente de trabalho em agentes de segurança penitenciária do sexo feminino no Brasil

“…O suporte social desenvolvido entre colegas de trabalho e supervisores têm sido associado a um maior bem estar entre os ASP, fortalecendo os laços de cooperação e solidariedade entre os profissionais 30 . Em ambientes prisionais onde esses laços são frágeis, ou mesmo inexistentes, identifica-se uma considerável sobrecarga de estresse ocupacional entre os profissionais 10 .…”

Pertenecer a una minoría racial siendo personal de vigilancia penitenciaria

“…Con lo mencionado en el apartado anterior y relacionándolo con el estrés laboral dentro de la prisión, este puede originarse por problemas de rol, es decir, por no tener definidas claramente las expectativas de la institución (ambigüedad). Otra de las consecuencias también puede ser la falta de apoyo o relación con el resto de funcionarios o superiores, ya que en ambos casos hay una mayor probabilidad de tener estrés (Steiner y Wooldredge, 2015).…”

“…Diferentes estudios determinan que no existe una relación significativa entre el grupo étnico y el estrés laboral (Cullen, Link, Wolfe y Frank, 1985;Whitehead y Lindquist, 1986;Van Voorhis et al, 1991;Lambert, Hogan, y Barton, 2002). Otras investigaciones concluyen que el grupo mayoritario es el que tiene mayor estrés, es decir, los funcionarios blancos (Blau, Light y Chamlin, 1986;Steiner y Wooldredge, 2015), y otras, en cambio, apuntan que son los miembros de la minoría racial los que lo tienen en mayor medida (Toch y Klofas, 1982;Armstrong y Griffin, 2004).…”