Associations of stress, anxiety, and resiliency in police work

Details

• Personal Author:
  Andrew M ; Baughman, Penelope ; Burchfiel C ; Fekedulegn D ; Hartley T ; Mnatskanova A ; Violanti J
• Description:
  Objectives: Police work is an occupation replete with stress. The present study examined associations between specific police stressors (overall, administrative pressure, physical threat, and lack of support) and anxiety symptoms, and whether these associations were modified by hardiness, a dimension of resiliency. Method: The Spielberger Police Stress Survey, Beck Anxiety Scale, and Dispositional Resilience scale were utilised in this study. A total of 373 police officers with complete data from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study were included. Linear regression and analysis of covariance were used to examine mean anxiety levels across quartiles of stress. Associations were adjusted for age, sex, race, alcohol, smoking, and anxiety medication, and stratified by hardiness scores. Results: The mean age of officers was 41.4 years and 27% were female. Adjusted mean anxiety symptoms increased significantly with increasing stress quartiles overall (4.23, 4.99, 6.74 and 9.95 for quartiles 1-4, respectively, p < 0.001) and for all three types of stressors (p < 0.001). Hardiness did not significantly modify these associations. However, officers with hardiness scores above the median had generally lower anxiety scores than those below the median. Conclusions: Specific types of stress in police work are significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety. Further research is needed for individual and organisational factors which protect officers from anxiety and for policies to reduce work stress. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Law Enforcement Men Mental Health Occupational Health Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Administration Humans Law-enforcement Law-enforcement-workers Physical-exercise Physical-fitness Physical-reactions Physical-stress Physiological-effects Physiological-function Physiological-stress Physiology Police-officers Psychological-effects Psychological-reactions Psychology Statistical-analysis Stress

  More +
• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  71
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044596
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2014 Jun; 71(Suppl 1):A3
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Challenges for Occupational Epidemiology in the 21st Century, EPICOH 2014, June 24-27, 2014, Chicago, Illinois
• Supplement:
  1
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9d49326fd46812106b25d38e1ada3afaf34375e725ec5bc1e5c33f62b844fbcbbf54b64b4ad685635c2eab2a236acb12591a4933abe5707671434c2294aeb869
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200265/cdc_200265_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 66.91 KB ]