Abstract:Police work creates unique marital difficulties. There are many factors that add stress to police officers' marriages, including shift work, long hours and unconventional schedules, divided commitment between work and family roles, and perceived personality changes among officers. When police officers carry work-related stress and behaviors into the home, they may experience difficulties in their family relationships. Unfortunately, relatively few researchers have investigated the impact of police work on spou… Show more
“…Research has shown that LEOS are susceptible to secondary trauma, or vicarious trauma (Kirschman, 2018), in addition to occupational stress caused by: an irregular work schedule, personality changes (Roberts & Levenson, 2001), bringing work stress home (Karaffa et al, 2015), the stigma attached to seeking mental health services (Karaffa & Koch, 2016), and higher alcohol use to cope with stress (Menard & Arter, 2013). Studies completed with first responders, police, fire, and medical, suggests a high percentage of workers bring home their occupational stress and it plays a significant role in how they interact in their personal lives (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Fay, Kamena, Benner, & Buscho, 2006;Karaffa et al, 2015;Porter & Henriksen, 2016;Kirschman, Kamena, & Fay, 2013). The law enforcement community is a culture within itself, is extremely hard for an outsider to develop trust without being a member, and studies have shown how this separate culture can provide additional strain on the family (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Karaffa et al, 2015).…”
Section: Purpose Of the Studymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Studies completed with first responders, police, fire, and medical, suggests a high percentage of workers bring home their occupational stress and it plays a significant role in how they interact in their personal lives (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Fay, Kamena, Benner, & Buscho, 2006;Karaffa et al, 2015;Porter & Henriksen, 2016;Kirschman, Kamena, & Fay, 2013). The law enforcement community is a culture within itself, is extremely hard for an outsider to develop trust without being a member, and studies have shown how this separate culture can provide additional strain on the family (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Karaffa et al, 2015). This culture is a barrier to community members seeking support and can cause isolation.…”
Section: Purpose Of the Studymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It will be defined as psychological strain causing physiological and behavioral changes (Pasillas, Follette, & Perumean-Chaney, 2006). Workrelated stress is widespread and affects LEO across the world as evidenced by studies conducted in Scotland (Alexander & Walker, 1996), the United States (Karaffa et al, 2015;Waters & Ussery, 2007;Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Brodie & Eppler, 2012;Tuttle, Giano, & Merten, 2018;), Turkey (Gul & Delice, 2011), and India (Lambert et al, 2017). According to a study by Alexander and Walker (1996) in Scotland, approximately 76% of LEOS reported their officer being stressed at work over the last 4 weeks and 59% reported their relationship had been adversely impacted because of work stress.…”
Section: Chapter II Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…incapable of protecting the public, or lacking the capacity to have their brothers' backs during critical incidents (Renteria, 2009;Menard & Arter, 2013;Kirschman, 2018;Waters & Ussery, 2007;Karaffa et al, 2015).…”
Law enforcement officer spouses and significant others (LEOS) are susceptible to secondary trauma, i.e., psychological and physiological strain from exposure to occupational stress through their interpersonal relationship with their partner. Secondary, or vicarious, trauma in this population is a result of their partner’s occupational stress related to the dangerous nature of the work as well as the unpredictable work environment inherent in law enforcement. Research on secondary trauma for law enforcement personnel is limited, and there is even less for their spouses and significant others. This article begins to fill in the gap in the literature through a mixed-methods study that sought to identify how law enforcement work impacts LEOS, uncovering occupational stressors and various coping mechanisms. A survey of participants ( n = 171) found that LEOS report a variety of stressors and in light of these, use negative coping strategies twice as much as positive coping strategies. Focus group data support the survey results, with 70% of respondents acknowledging significant stress related to their partner’s occupation. Data revealed that LEOS experience elevated stress at levels close to, and sometimes more than, the law enforcement officer (LEO), contributing to the use of negative coping strategies to manage the strain. Further research is needed to demonstrate how LEOS are at risk for experiencing long-term physical and mental health concerns resulting from ongoing exposure to heightened levels of stress, and to explore or design effective interventions to address or prevent secondary stress.
“…Research has shown that LEOS are susceptible to secondary trauma, or vicarious trauma (Kirschman, 2018), in addition to occupational stress caused by: an irregular work schedule, personality changes (Roberts & Levenson, 2001), bringing work stress home (Karaffa et al, 2015), the stigma attached to seeking mental health services (Karaffa & Koch, 2016), and higher alcohol use to cope with stress (Menard & Arter, 2013). Studies completed with first responders, police, fire, and medical, suggests a high percentage of workers bring home their occupational stress and it plays a significant role in how they interact in their personal lives (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Fay, Kamena, Benner, & Buscho, 2006;Karaffa et al, 2015;Porter & Henriksen, 2016;Kirschman, Kamena, & Fay, 2013). The law enforcement community is a culture within itself, is extremely hard for an outsider to develop trust without being a member, and studies have shown how this separate culture can provide additional strain on the family (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Karaffa et al, 2015).…”
Section: Purpose Of the Studymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Studies completed with first responders, police, fire, and medical, suggests a high percentage of workers bring home their occupational stress and it plays a significant role in how they interact in their personal lives (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Fay, Kamena, Benner, & Buscho, 2006;Karaffa et al, 2015;Porter & Henriksen, 2016;Kirschman, Kamena, & Fay, 2013). The law enforcement community is a culture within itself, is extremely hard for an outsider to develop trust without being a member, and studies have shown how this separate culture can provide additional strain on the family (Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Karaffa et al, 2015). This culture is a barrier to community members seeking support and can cause isolation.…”
Section: Purpose Of the Studymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It will be defined as psychological strain causing physiological and behavioral changes (Pasillas, Follette, & Perumean-Chaney, 2006). Workrelated stress is widespread and affects LEO across the world as evidenced by studies conducted in Scotland (Alexander & Walker, 1996), the United States (Karaffa et al, 2015;Waters & Ussery, 2007;Roberts & Levenson, 2001;Brodie & Eppler, 2012;Tuttle, Giano, & Merten, 2018;), Turkey (Gul & Delice, 2011), and India (Lambert et al, 2017). According to a study by Alexander and Walker (1996) in Scotland, approximately 76% of LEOS reported their officer being stressed at work over the last 4 weeks and 59% reported their relationship had been adversely impacted because of work stress.…”
Section: Chapter II Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…incapable of protecting the public, or lacking the capacity to have their brothers' backs during critical incidents (Renteria, 2009;Menard & Arter, 2013;Kirschman, 2018;Waters & Ussery, 2007;Karaffa et al, 2015).…”
Law enforcement officer spouses and significant others (LEOS) are susceptible to secondary trauma, i.e., psychological and physiological strain from exposure to occupational stress through their interpersonal relationship with their partner. Secondary, or vicarious, trauma in this population is a result of their partner’s occupational stress related to the dangerous nature of the work as well as the unpredictable work environment inherent in law enforcement. Research on secondary trauma for law enforcement personnel is limited, and there is even less for their spouses and significant others. This article begins to fill in the gap in the literature through a mixed-methods study that sought to identify how law enforcement work impacts LEOS, uncovering occupational stressors and various coping mechanisms. A survey of participants ( n = 171) found that LEOS report a variety of stressors and in light of these, use negative coping strategies twice as much as positive coping strategies. Focus group data support the survey results, with 70% of respondents acknowledging significant stress related to their partner’s occupation. Data revealed that LEOS experience elevated stress at levels close to, and sometimes more than, the law enforcement officer (LEO), contributing to the use of negative coping strategies to manage the strain. Further research is needed to demonstrate how LEOS are at risk for experiencing long-term physical and mental health concerns resulting from ongoing exposure to heightened levels of stress, and to explore or design effective interventions to address or prevent secondary stress.
“…But, as Karaffa et al. (2015) demonstrate, officers soon experience “emotional detachment from other aspects of daily life that are unrelated to the job” (p. 122). For example, in a blog post for Badgeoflifecanada.org, an organization dedicated to improving the health of current and former police officers, a retiree, whom we will call Mark, wrote: I am alone with my thoughts, my memories and I'm left trying to make some sense out of this ….…”
In this paper, we bring conceptual clarity to the literature on “role residual.” Based on the extant literature and our own research involving police retirees, we first delineate three empirical variants of role residual: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. We then make the case that a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon requires a theoretical framework capable of conceptualizing role residual in a way that is consistent with a broader theory of practice. To that end, we use Bourdieu's work to argue that role residual comprises states of being or behavior that occur at the intersection of (a) schemas and dispositions inscribed in the habitus as a result of one's prior role‐specific orientation to the field, and (b) a configuration of proximate conditions in the present that is sufficiently similar to what one would have experienced while in one's prior role.
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