The relationship between organisational stressors and mental wellbeing within police officers: a systematic review

Abstract

Background Occupational stressors in police work increase the risk for officer mental health morbidities. Officers’ poor mental wellbeing is harmful to the individual, can affect professionalism, organisational effectiveness, and public safety. While the impact of operational stressors on officers’ mental wellbeing is well documented, no review has systematically investigated organisational stressor impacts. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review to assess the relationship between organisational stressors and police officer mental wellbeing. Methods Systematic review conducted following PRISMA and Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Literature search was undertaken from 1990 to May 2017 on four databases (EBSCOHOST Medline/SocINDEX/PsycINFO/OVID Embase) and grey literature. Included articles were critically appraised and assessed for risk of bias. Narrative and evidence syntheses were performed by specific mental health outcomes. Results In total, 3571 results were returned, and 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. All included studies were published in English between 1995 and 2016, had cross-sectional study designs, spanned across four continents and covered 15,150 officers. Strong evidence of significant associations was identified for organisational stressors and the outcomes of: occupational stress, psychiatric symptoms/psychological distress, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. The organisational stressors most often demonstrating consistently significant associations with mental health outcomes included lack of support, demand, job pressure, administrative/organisational pressure and long working-hours. Conclusions This review is the first to systematically examine organisational stressors and mental health in police officers. Organisational stressors that can be targeted by interventions and policy changes to secure officer wellbeing, a healthy work environment, and benefits to the organisation and the public are identified.

Mediating role of coping style on the relationship between job stress and subjective well-being among Korean police officers

“…The subjective well-being of police officers is related to mental health [4]. SWB can also affect police organizations and communities, not just the lives of individuals [4]. Low SWB of police officers leads to absenteeism, job-related accidents, and socially negative perceptions of the police.…”

“…Police are also routinely exposed to traumatic events such as traffic accidents, natural disasters, and the witnessing of deaths [2,3]. Police work has emotional labor characteristics in nature because it requires public contact [4]. In addition to the stressors related to the above circumstances (occupational stressors), the officers also have organizational stressors that include coping with administrative structure, promotion, and working environment [5,6].…”

Burnout and Stress Measurement in Police Officers: Literature Review and a Study With the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire

“…According to recent systematic reviews, being a police officer seems to be a highly demanding and stressful occupation, due to the current characteristics of modern societies. For a police officer, those characteristics include: the uncertainty and danger related to the permanent threat of terrorist attacks, the increase of violence with firearms in urban areas, low human and material resources, team or supervision difficulties, criticism from citizens and society, and lack of understanding from family or friends (Cumming et al, 1965;Webster, 2013;Magnavita et al, 2018;Purba and Demou, 2019). Numerous studies have tried to map police officers' stress and its sources, a topic highlighted in the 1980s by the NIOSH technical report (Hurrell et al, 1984), and in the 1990s by Norvell et al (1993), whose study focused on the influence of gender differences on law enforcement officers.…”

Secondary Traumatic Stress in Italian Police Officers: The Role of Job Demands and Job Resources

“…Anshel et al (2013) proposed including physical fitness activities such as a "time-out" that permits POs to stop the source of their anxiety and to increase their energy and, as a consequence, to increase the strategies used to cope with the traumatic event. Moreover, to improve coping strategies and resilience, a meta-analysis by Purba and Demou (2019) suggested that it is important to increase the support given by superiors and colleagues because the lack of such support is related to mental health outcomes. Furthermore, prevention programs could include the following: information courses on STS, its symptoms and consequences (this happens in HCP training); a training program focused on enhancing POs' strategies for using adaptative coping strategies and building resilience; creating an organizational climate that helps POs who suffer from STS; and mitigating the negative stigma associated with POs who seek counseling and psychological help (Turgoose et al, 2017).…”