Stressful life events and posttraumatic growth among police officers: A cross-sectional study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Stress Health
• Personal Author:
  Leppma, Monica ; Mnatsakanova, Anna ; Sarkisian, Khachatur ; Scott, Olivia ; Adjeroh, Leonie ; Andrew, Michael E. ; Violanti, John M. ; McCanlies, Erin C.
• Description:
  Police officers often continue to face numerous threats and stressors in the aftermath of a disaster. To date, posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been studied primarily in the context of significant trauma; thus, it is not known whether stressful life events are associated with PTG. This study investigated the development of PTG among 113 police officers working in the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina. Hierarchical regression was used to evaluate if gratitude, social support, and satisfaction with life moderated the relationship between stressful life events (as measured by the total life stress score) and PTG, after adjustment for age, sex, race, level of involvement in Hurricane Katrina, and alcohol intake. Results indicate that stressful life events are independently associated with PTG. Gratitude, satisfaction with life, and social support were seen to moderate this relationship; as stressful life events increased so too did PTG-particularly among officers with higher levels of gratitude (B = 0.002, p ≤ .05), satisfaction with life (B = 0.002, p ≤ .05), and social support (B = 0.001, p ≤ .05). These findings suggest that promoting satisfaction with life, interpersonal support, and gratitude may be beneficial to those who are regularly at risk of trauma exposure.
• Subjects:
  Adaptation, Psychological Adult Age Factors Alcohol Drinking Cross-Sectional Studies Cyclonic Storms Disasters Female Humans Life Change Events Male Middle Aged New Orleans Personal Satisfaction Police Resilience, Psychological Sex Factors Social Support Stress, Psychological Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

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• Keywords:
  Job Stress Post-traumatic Growth Psychological Well-being Stress Coping
• Source:
  Stress Health. 34(1):175-186
• Pubmed ID:
  28703379
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6314019
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 OH010807/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R03 OH009582/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:88600d46db697c8bc9bf26832d8581573535162a044d5dfd23d44a3838c4df0a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/61683/cdc_61683_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 710.68 KB ]