A Conceptual Model and Implications for Coping with Stressful Events in Police Work

Abstract

Experiencing acute stress is inherent in police work. The inability to cope effectively with stressful events can result in undesirable psychological and somatic outcomes, leading to chronic stress, burnout, and quitting the profession. Surprisingly, however, understanding the coping process in police stress and identifying effective coping strategies in response to stressful events has received only scant attention in the research literature. The purposes of this article are (a) to review the coping process in police stress, (b) to identify adaptive and maladaptive coping styles in police work, and (c) to suggest coping strategies that reflect the coping model to reduce both chronic and acute forms of stress and to improve job satisfaction and performance among police officers. The model consists of officers' detection of stressful events or stimuli, their cognitive appraisal of the events or stimuli, and their application of approach- or avoidance-coping dimensions, and cognitive- and behavioral-coping subdimensions.

Prevalência e Preditores de Burnout em Bombeiros

“…Trabalhos empíricos têm desvelado o poder do coping como um fator protetor de saúde, evidenciando que as estratégias de enfrentamento utilizadas pelos indivíduos são importantes para a redução ou aumento dos níveis de Burnout (Anshel, 2000;McPherson, 2012). Thornton (1992) identificou associação entre coping de evitação e Burnout em estudo com trabalhadores de saúde mental.…”

Coping, stress and suicide ideation in the South African Police Service in the Eastern Cape

“…Despite being used on the assumption that they will assist coping, these factors are rarely effective in helping officers manage stressful events. Female police officers tend to make more use of passive coping strategies such as detachment and denial (Anshel, 2000). In the study by Patterson (2000), coping was conceptualised as active coping (e.g.…”

“…In South Africa, members of the police service are challenged by various potential stressors, such as a high crime level, organisational transformation and a lack of resources (Pienaar, 2002). Not surprisingly, increased rates of illness, post-traumatic stress, burnout, alcohol abuse and suicides, and decreased levels of job satisfaction and job performance, as compared to norms for the general population, are found in research with police members (Anshel, 2000;Nel, 1994 Police suicides have shown a consistent increase over the past two decades and according to Violanti (1995), there are a few possible precursors and correlates of police suicide. The immediate availability of firearms, continuous exposure to death and injury, social strain resulting from shift-work, a general lack of social support and the negative public image of police officers have been suggested as possible stressors and reasons for police suicide (Biggam, Violanti, 1995).…”

“…Life stresses in general and family stress in particular are associated with suicide ideation. The lack of social interaction and the lack of support from relatives and friends are also indicated in suicide ideation (Anshel, 2000;Hirsch & Ellis, 1995;Nel, 1994;Vilhjalmsson et al, 1998).…”

“…However, research indicates that police officers utilise coping mechanisms that increase rather than alleviate their stress (Violanti, 1995). Anshel (2000) defines effective coping as the efficacy with which individuals deal with their emotional responses to stressors and act to resolve the stressors and the cost of their effectiveness to the individual. Maladaptive coping was found in a Canadian study of police stress by Burke (1994), in which officers who coped by using alcohol and drugs, anger and withdrawal were more likely to suffer from health problems than officers who used more adaptive coping skills.…”