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

Abstract

Police officers are among the workers most exposed to acute or chronic stressful events, which compromises their psychosocial well-being and physical health. Exposure to traumatic events, human suffering, problematic situations and episodes of violence can cause psychological damage and lead to the development of secondary traumatic stress. The aim of this research is to explore the effect of job demands and job resources on secondary traumatic stress in police officers. To better understand this phenomenon and its consequences in this population, police officers were compared with health care professionals working as first responders. An ad hoc questionnaire was administered to 112 and 286 health care professionals. The findings showed that compared with health care workers, police officers suffer from secondary traumatic stress to a greater extent. Moreover, the results showed that some police officers suffered more than health care professionals regarding certain consequences of secondary traumatic stress, such as negative emotions and burnout. This study suggests implications and offers insights for both police officers and the organizations in which they work: police officer organizations should contribute to preventing the phenomenon of secondary traumatic stress by proposing programs that implement resilience training and adaptive coping strategies.

Traditional Male Role Norms, Social Support, and Symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Among Male Polish Police Officers

“…This might be the result of potential cognitive decline connected with aging, which gradually decreases the ability to process traumatic events (Foa and Kozak 1986). Length of service also seems to increase the odds of developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which might be the result of high demands and low resources in the workplace and burnout (Acquadro Maran et al 2020;Foley and Massey 2020). In the case of number of types of traumatic events, the more diversified the traumatogenic stimuli, the higher are the odds of developing PTSD symptomatology (similar results were found by Hartley et al (2013).…”

The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Police Officers’ Stress Reduction: a Systematic Review

“…Additionally, numerous studies have revealed that police officers face both physical and psychological health problems, which may affect police officers’ work quality (e.g. decision-making or the ability to react quickly to dangerous situations), personal relationships and quality of life (Acquadro et al 2020 ; Demou et al 2020 ; Violanti et al 2017 ).…”

“…Police officers face both chronic and acute stressors at work. The observation of traumatic events, human suffering and episodes of violence can lead to secondary traumatic stress (Acquadro et al 2020 ). Depression, anxiety disorders, cardiovascular disease at a younger age, alcoholism, occupational burnout, post-traumatic stress disorder, or even the risk of suicide are more common among police officers than other professionals (Queiros et al 2020 ; Acquadro et al 2020 ; Demou et al 2020 ; Ivleva and Pajarskienė, 2019 ; Purba and Demou 2019 ; Violanti et al 2017 ; Wagner et al 2020 ).…”

“…The observation of traumatic events, human suffering and episodes of violence can lead to secondary traumatic stress (Acquadro et al 2020 ). Depression, anxiety disorders, cardiovascular disease at a younger age, alcoholism, occupational burnout, post-traumatic stress disorder, or even the risk of suicide are more common among police officers than other professionals (Queiros et al 2020 ; Acquadro et al 2020 ; Demou et al 2020 ; Ivleva and Pajarskienė, 2019 ; Purba and Demou 2019 ; Violanti et al 2017 ; Wagner et al 2020 ). Police officers who experience traumatic stress or already have symptoms of post-traumatic stress are more likely to experience chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, indigestion, autoimmune disorders, chronic pain syndrome, complex psychological difficulties, social phobias and are more prone to drug use (McCainlies et al 2014 ).…”

Workplace aggression, wellbeing, and job satisfaction: The specificity in border police organizations

“…Police organizations, particularly border police, are public service entities rated as highly stressful with a high level of daily ( Siu et al, 2015 ; Wolf, 2017 ; Demou et al, 2020 ; Lentz et al, 2020 ) and uncontrollable risk ( Cartwright and Roach, 2021 ; Chitra and Karunanidhi, 2021 ; Jackman et al, 2020 ; Papazoglou et al, 2020b ), which face numerous situations, such as humanitarian crises at borders, that have the capacity to generate conflict and role ambiguity for their members ( Antón, 2009 ; Acquadro Maran et al, 2020 ; Queirós et al, 2020 ). In these organizations, high cooperation is required ( Rexeis, 2017 ), there is a strong hierarchy, and often an authoritarian leadership style ( Piotrowski et al, 2021 ).…”