Association of work-related stress with mental health problems in a special police force unit

Abstract

ObjectivesLaw and order enforcement tasks may expose special force police officers to significant psychosocial risk factors. The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between job stress and the presence of mental health symptoms while controlling sociodemographical, occupational and personality variables in special force police officers.MethodAt different time points, 292 of 294 members of the ‘VI Reparto Mobile’, a special police force engaged exclusively in the enforcement of law and order, responded to our invitation to complete questionnaires for the assessment of personality traits, work-related stress (using the Demand–Control–Support (DCS) and the Effort–Reward–Imbalance (ERI) models) and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and burnout.ResultsRegression analyses showed that lower levels of support and reward and higher levels of effort and overcommitment were associated with higher levels of mental health symptoms. Psychological screening revealed 21 (7.3%) likely cases of mild depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI≥10). Officers who had experienced a discrepancy between work effort and rewards showed a marked increase in the risk of depression (OR 7.89, 95% CI 2.32 to 26.82) when compared with their counterparts who did not perceive themselves to be in a condition of distress.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that work-related stress may play a role in the development of mental health problems in police officers. The prevalence of mental health symptoms in the cohort investigated here was low, but not negligible in the case of depression. Since special forces police officers have to perform sensitive tasks for which a healthy psychological functioning is needed, the results of this study suggest that steps should be taken to prevent distress and improve the mental well-being of these workers.

Burnout, Coping, Stress of Conscience and Psychosocial Work Environment among Patrolling Police Officers

“…Garbarino et al 2013 also described work-related stress might play a role when developing mental health problems among police officers. Results from our study is not straight forward, and further research is needed to explain the complex process of this association.…”

Health in police officers: Role of risk factor clusters and police divisions

“…The latter may be explained by the fact that in line with earlier findings on particularly male participants, police officers appeared to use problem-focused and social support-seeking coping strategies more frequently than emotion-focused coping strategies (Evans, Coman, Stanley, & Burrows, 1993). In terms of job strain-related variables, psychological demands are thought to be particularly detrimental in combination with low decision latitude and low social support (Garbarino, Cuomo, Chiorri, & Magnavita, 2013; Jones, O'Connor, Conner, McMillan, & Ferguson, 2007; Sargent & Terry, 2000). Hence, although the risk clusters did not differ in level of psychological demand, the observed levels may have contributed differentially to the job strain risk pattern.…”

Stress among Italian male and female patrol police officers: a quali-quantitative survey

“…Other Italian studies have recently investigated work-related stress in this population in relation to operational and organizational stressors (Garbarino, Magnavita, Chiorri, et al, 2012;Setti & Argentero, 2012) and, more generally, absenteeism (Magnavita & Garbarino, 2013) and personality traits (Garbarino, Chiorri, & Magnavita, 2013). Thus this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first quali-quantitative study in Italy to consider the gender variable within a single police force.…”