Police stress and well‐being: Integrating personality, coping and daily work experiences

Abstract

What are the personal and work related factors which contribute to a police officer's psychological well-being? This question was examined within a Perceived Quality of Life (PQOL) framework that integrates personality, coping processes and a police officer's positive (beneficial to well-being) and negative (harmful to well-being) work experiences. Structural equation analyses were conducted on questionnaire data obtained from 527 police officers during two related studies. Two structural equation models showed that positive and negative work experiences independently contributed to an officer's PQOL, and that organizational rather than operational experiences were more important. A third model supported these findings, but showed that the personality dimensions of neuroticism and extraversion were the strongest predictors of an officer's PQOL. It was also shown that problem-focused coping resulted in positive work experiences, whereas emotion-focused coping contributed to negative work experiences. Comparisons with other community and occupational groups suggested that police reported relatively favourably levels of psychological well-being. Collectively, these results indicate that policing is not highly stressful, and demonstrate the need for a systemic view in order to understand police officers' psychological responses to their work.Due to the conceptual and methodological problems in the police stress literature (Hart, has left a paucity of information about the extent to which policing is stressful, and has resulted in relatively little being known about the factors which determine perceived quality of life among police officers (perceived quality of life, psychological well-being, and subjective wellbeing are semantic variations of the same concept, and are used interchangeably in this paper). These conceptual and methodological problems include the use of inappropriate measures, a failure to compare police officers with other occupational groups, and the lack of a theoretical framework that explains the relationship between personal and occupational characteristics in determining police officers' psychological responses to their work. Drawing on the dynamic equilibrium theory of stress proposed by Hart et al.

Investigating the Psychological Well-Being and Job Satisfaction Levels in Different Occupations

“…In the study carried out by Hart, Wearing, and Headey (1995) upon investigating the effect of police officers' daily work experiences and personality traits upon their stress and well-being levels, they determined that both negative work experiences and positive work experiences negatively affected their perceived life quality. ies.ccsenet.org International Education Studies Vol.…”

Coping Strategies to Confront Problems and Work Stress among Health Practitioners According to Their Personality Type

“…And regarding the objectives of the coping strategies, it can be oriented towards the problem or oriented to the emotion (Lazarus & Folkman, 1986;Edwards, 1988;Begley, 1998). It seems that the coping strategies that oriented to the problem exert more benefits than strategies oriented to the emotion or avoidance (Roger, Jarvis & Najarian, 1993;Hart et al, 1995), and it would be more effective when the potential stresses of the environment are well controlled (Folkman, 1984;Edwards, 1988;Dewe, 1987;Labrador, 1995;Peiró& Salvador, 1993;Long, 1998;Ito & Brotheridge, 200;Peñacoba, et al, 2000). Thornton (1992) found that there is an association between avoidance as coping strategies and burnout.…”

A Step towards Distinction between Supervisory Impulsive and Strategic Abuse

“…Stress as a response strategy is rooted in the biological work of Selye (1976). He argued that stress is the psychological response to stressors involving all body organs which in the long term weakens the body's defence system and is reflected in the subject's emotional responses, e.g., anxiety, anger, irritation, depression and inability to concentrate (Hart & Cotton, 2003;Hart, Wearing, & Headey, 1995;Selye, 1976). Selye differentiated between distress (negative stress) which is associated with negative feelings and eustress (positive stress) associated with positive feelings that motivate individuals towards their higher achievements (Coon & Mitterer, 2008;Selye, 1976).…”