ABSTRACT
Background: Occupational stress among police officers is an extensive but neglected issue due to number of negative consequences on an individual as well as the police department. Policing is a highly demanding work environment, with constant threat to life, uncertainty at work, encounters, political pressure, exposure to violence, and death. Objectives: The objective of the study was to identify the occupation-related stressors faced by civil police officers in a subdivision in Thrissur. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among civil police officers in Irinjalakuda subdivision, Kerala, from January 2017 to October 2018. The study population consisted of all civil police officers from the subdivision. Data were collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, which included sociodemographic variables and self-reported physical morbidities. Occupational stressors were measured using operational and organizational police stress Questionnaire. The data obtained was coded, entered in Microsoft Excel sheet and analyzed using the statistical software, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version-23). Results: Nearly three-fourths of the participants were males and the mean age of the participants was 39.94 ± 7.067 years. Eight operational stressors were found to have a median value above four, while a median of five organizational stressors was found to be above four. “Fatigue” and “friends/family feel the stigma associated with job” were the most commonly quoted operational stressors while “staff shortages” and “bureaucratic red tape” were the most commonly quoted organizational stressors. Conclusion: Modifications such as sharing work and allotting fixed duty hours should be done to avoid stress and its adverse effects. Stress management training can be given at regular intervals to improve competency and enhance coping skills.
ABSTRACT
Background: Occupational stress is regarded as one of the major health hazards of modern workplace, with policing (law enforcement) being no exception. Women police officers are gradually increasing in numbers in the country and they are believed to experience more stress than their male counterpart. Hence this study was conducted with the objectives of estimating prevalence of occupational stress among female police personals in terms of operational and organizational stress and to identify the causes for these stress as perceived by them.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 50 female police officers working in various police stations of Thiruvananthapuram city, selected by simple random sampling, during the period May 2018 to July 2018,using a pre tested semi structured questionnaire based on operational police stress questionnaire (PSQ-OP) and organizational police stress questionnaire (PSQ-ORG). The data was properly coded and entered in Microsoft excel and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0.Results: Mean age of the study population was 38.07 years (SD=5.714 years) and majority (64%) belonged to middle socioeconomic class. Perceived organizational and operational stress prevalence among the study population was as high as 80% (40 % experienced moderate stress and 40% experienced high stress) and 90% (high stress reported by 70 % and moderate stress by 20%) respectively. The most common stressor reported for organizational stress was staff shortage (74%) and that for operational stress was finding time to stay in good physical condition (76%).Conclusions: High prevalence of occupational stress calls for immediate attention from the officials.