Effects of Mental Strength Training for Police Officers: a Three-Wave Quasi-experimental Study

Abstract

Police officers are frequently confronted with various stressors that may affect their mental health. Psychological resilience may protect against these effects. For this purpose, a Mental Strength Training (MST) was developed by the Dutch Police Academy aimed at psychological resilience enhancement. The present three-wave study examined efficacy of this training using a quasiexperimental study design among police officers (N Total = 305, n Experimenal = 138, n Comparison = 167). Additionally, we compared between officers in the experimental and comparison group recently confronted with a potentially traumatic event (N Total = 170, n Experimenal = 74, n Comparison = 96). Questionnaires on resilience (Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (MTQ-48) and Resilience Scale-nl (RS-nl)), mental health disturbances (Symptoms CheckList 90-R (SCL-90-R) and Self-Rating Inventory for PTSD (SRIP)), were administered pre-training, and about 3 and 9 months post-training. Mixed-effects models showed training effects on Interpersonal Confidence. Similar analyses among officers with recent potentially traumatic event experience showed significant training effects for the RS-nl subscale of Acceptance of Self and Life, MTQ-48 total score, and the MTQ-48 subscale of Interpersonal Confidence. However, all effects yielded small effect sizes according to Cohen's d, and are therefore of limited practical relevance. Officer's appraisal of training benefits on resilience enhancement was largely negative. We found no indications that 4-day training substantially improved officer's psychological resilience or mental health.

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

“…Moreover, occupational health has become a concern, along with the need to identify critical situations early that might, without intervention, lead to situations that are more dangerous. Training mental strength, resilience, or emotional intelligence seems to be a possibility (Papazoglou and Andersen, 2014;Meulen et al, 2017;Romosiou et al, 2018), as well as reflecting the work values of police officers (Basinska and Daderman, 2019), since motivations for becoming a police officer have changed in recent decades (Lester, 1983;White et al, 2010). Furthermore, according to Blumberg et al (2019, p. 1), new directions should be taken in police academy training, preparing police officers "to meet the contemporary challenges of police work, " and also to develop psychological skills, such as by including in the curricula stress prevention and management programs, as well as topics such as the stressburnout relationship.…”

Law Enforcement Activities of the Criminal Executive Special Forces Associated with the Use of Coercive Measures

“…By the way, in many foreign countries (France, Spain, Portugal, Germany) when selecting candidates for service in special police units, priority is given to those who are able to think combat-wisely when using coercive measures. They mainly focus on the "effect of mental strength training" in police special forces [14].…”

Breathing Biofeedback for Police Officers in a Stressful Virtual Environment: Challenges and Opportunities

“…This misattribution can be prevented by presenting the biofeedback such that it intuitively represents physiology in the task context. We use the analogy of tunnel vision which is relatable for Dutch police since they are introduced to this concept during their academy training (van der Meulen et al, 2018). Figure 4 illustrates how the trainee's peripheral vision widens as the breathing gets slower and deeper.…”