Stress Among Prison Officers: Some Empirical Evidence Based on Self Report¹

Abstract

Eighty‐nine prison officers were asked to rate the importance of 25 potential sources of stress in their work. They were also administered a twelve‐item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) as a measure of occupational stress. General Health (GH) was not related to age. It was related to rank, with senior officers reporting lower levels of stress than basic grade officers. The relationship between GH and length of service was curvilinear, with officers who had worked an intermediate number of years in the prison service reporting more stress. The factor analysis of the 25 sources of stress suggested that stress originated from two main sources, inmates and management, the weight given to these two factors being unrelated to the age, rank or experience of the officers. It was however related to the officers' reported stress on the GHQ. In particular, stressed officers were more likely to report inmates to be a source of stress than non‐stressed officers. Implications and plans for future research are discussed.

Predicting work-related stress in correctional officers: A meta-analysis

“…More specifically, when correlating age with job stress, the size of the correlation (or in this case, effect size) is reliant on the degree of the linear relationship between the two variables (i.e., the stronger the linear relationship, the higher the correlation). Previous studies, however, indicated a curvilinear relationship between age and job stress in correctional officers (Launay & Fielding, 1989;Patterson, 1992). Thus, if this type of curvilinear trend existed, the deflation in effect size magnitude might be accounted for with this type of relationship.…”

South African correctional official occupational stress: The role of psychological strengths

“…Previous studies indicated a curvilinear relationship between age and job stress in correctional officers (Launay & Fielding, 1989;Patterson, 1992), the youngest and eldest employees experiencing the most stress. Employees who were older and/or male, and those with longer tenure, however, reported significantly lower levels of health concerns.…”

Work conditions and mental health among prison staff in France

“…In New Zealand, Long et a1 (3) observed that there was more stress among prison staff than among army personnel, but that among prison staff the degree of stress differed depending on the occupational category. In Great Britain, the study by Rutter & Fielding showed the parts respectively played by the organization of work (4) and relationships with the inmates ( 5 ) in the development of stress among prison guards. A study conducted in Finland (6) also showed that the risk of stress among prison personnel is linked to the organization of work and to prison characteristics such as category and size.…”