The Effects of Gender, Tenure and Primary Workplace on Burnout of Ukrainian Police Officers

Abstract

The postmodern era poses special challenge for police: the transition from the archetypal role of a warrior to the role of a servant. Purpose. To determine the level of Ukrainian police officers` burnout and effect of the gender, tenure and primary workplace (field work or office service) on it. The study involved police officers of the National Police of Ukraine (age -20-45 years, n = 129 -men, n = 55 -women). The questionnaire was applied. The results of the questionnaire were processed by mathematical statistics methods. 53.8% and 30.4% of the officers revealed high and average levels of emotional exhaustion respectively. Only 15.8% officers revealed low level of depersonalization (≤6 points) a reduction in their personal accomplishment (≥39 points). The correlation analysis was performed by the Kendall rank correlation coefficient. The study did not reveal a statistically significant relationship between burnout and gender. However, a slight negative correlation of tenure and burnout was revealed. This requires further research of young officers, in particular, their job expectations. The primary workplace is identified as a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion (τ Kendall=0.192),) and aggregated global measure of burnout (τ-Kendall=0.179). The revealed condition and structure of occupational burnout of Ukrainian police officers testify to its risk level and the necessity of its constant monitoring and psychological support. The implications and limitations of research and practice are discussed.

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

“…Older people also showed to be more resilient [ 54 ]. Among police officers, some studies found no differences [ 3 , 55 ], while others found that women experience more burnout [ 56 ], more emotional exhaustion and less depersonalization [ 57 , 58 ], more stress [ 59 ] and feel policing stressors differently than men [ 60 , 61 ]. Regarding age, some studies found older police officers presented more stress [ 62 ], while others found more stress among young police officers [ 63 ].…”

Coping Behavior of Criminal Police Officers at Different Stages of Professional Activity

“…The authors (Barrett et al, 2003;Valieiev et al, 2019) highlight the following differences between defense behavior and coping. Coping is an active form of mastering that helps solve life problems, while the defense is a passive form that only protects for a certain time.…”

In the Search for the Golden Mean: Students` Satisfaction with Face-to-Face, Blended and Distance Learning

“…In addition, policing is carried out in a chaotic workplace environment (Tyler & Mckenzie, 2014). Harsh conditions of service cause a high level of burnout of Ukrainian police officers and low job satisfaction (Valieiev, Polyvaniuk, Antonenko, Rebkalo, Sobakar, & Oliinyk, 2019). It can be stated that in post-Soviet countries the assessment prepared by Egon Bitner (as sited in Makin, 2016) in the USA 50 years ago, remains relevant: police education is more likely to prepare compliant soldier-bureaucrats.…”