Article Summary

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Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles Volume 87 (2014) 167–177

Introduction Police officers face a variety of stressful scenarios that may increase their risk for negative physical, psychological and interpersonal outcomes, which may in turn have effects on their department’s performance, absenteeism, turnover and workman’s compensation costs (Julseth et al., 2011). To reduce these problems for police officers and their departments, many large metropolitan police departments with over 100 officers have created employee assistance programs (EAPs) to support officers dealing with occupational and personal stressors (Swanson et al., 2012). However, the challenges faced by police officers are not limited to those working in large metropolitan departments, with some stressors being perhaps even more common in small departments (such as insufficient personnel, inadequate equipment, limited opportunities for advancement), making the study of stressors experienced by officers in small police departments of particular importance because they are likely to be underserved by employee assistance programmes.

Police Stressors, Negative Outcomes Associated with Them and Coping Mechanisms that May Reduce These Associations

S. Hakan Can* and Helen M. Hendy Penn State University, Schuylkill Campus, USA

Keywords: police stress; employee assistance programmes; repressed anger

Abstract: One purpose of the present study was to examine how exposure to police stressors was associated with increased risk for physical, psychological and interpersonal negative outcomes. Another purpose was to identify ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ coping mechanisms that mediate these associations between police stressors and negative outcomes.

Participants included 201 police officers from small departments under 100 officers (96% male; mean age = 40.3 years; 91% Caucasian; 55% Patrol Officer rank; mean years of service = 15.0 years), who completed anonymous surveys that included the 25-item Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS) and measures of health problems, self-esteem and aggression to romantic partners and police partners. They also reported 12 ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ coping mechanisms as suggested by the Theory of Threat Appraisal and Coping (exercise, sleep, eating fruit and vegetables, family support, police support, religiosity, alcohol, tobacco, snacks, caffeine, expressed anger, repressed anger).

Higher exposure to police stressors was associated with increased risk for health problems, low self-esteem, partner aggression and police aggression. Repressed anger was the ‘unhealthy’ coping mechanism most significantly associated with officers’ reports of police stressors. Mediation analysis revealed that only the removal of repressed anger dropped associations between police stressors and the four negative outcomes to non-significance. Present results demonstrate that the most prevalent coping mechanism used by stressed police officers may not always be associated with improvements in outcomes. Employee assistance programmes for officers with high levels of police stressors should focus on anger-management and anger-expression skills.

* [email protected]

DOI: 10.1350/pojo.2014.87.3.676

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Types of Police Stressors Measures of police stressors have most often included ‘critical incidents’ of danger and exposure to horrific scenes of death and injury, such as those found in the 25-item Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS) (Van Hasselt et al., 2008) and the 34-item Critical Incident History Questionnaire (CIHQ) (Weiss et al., 2010) and some measures have also included ‘departmental politics’ such as poor leadership, co-worker uncooperativeness or incompetence, inadequate equipment, changing work shifts, limited opportunities for advancement, and harassment or discrimination, such as those found in the LEOSS and the 68-item Work Environment Index (WEI) (Liberman et al., 2002). Less commonly included in measures of police stressors are ‘home-work conflicts’ such as arguments with the spouse about late work hours and family disappointment about missed events. Such ‘home-work conflicts’ are included in the LEOSS.

Negative Outcomes Associated with Police Stressors and Possible Coping Mechanisms Past research has examined how exposure to police stressors may increase the risk for negative physical, psychological and social outcomes for officers. For example, exposure to police stressors may increase the risk for health problems (Tang & Hammontree, 1992; Franke et al., 2002), depression, poor self-esteem and thoughts of suicide (Violanti, 2004), and aggression displayed to romantic partners (Can et al., 2008; Anderson & Lo, 2011; Ivie & Garland, 2011; Regehr et al., 2013; Yun et al., 2013).

The Theory of Threat Appraisal and Coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) suggests that individuals exposed to stressors may use a number of both healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Healthy coping mechanisms may help the person feel better immediately, and have lasting benefits to health and well-being. Some examples would be exercise, getting adequate sleep, eating a healthy diet that includes nutrient-rich fruit and vegetables, having social support from the ‘home family’ and the ‘police family’ and being comforted by one’s spirituality or religion. Unhealthy coping mechanisms may help the person feel better immediately, yet increase risks for later problems. Some examples would be drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, eating high-fat or high-sugar snack foods, drinking caffeinated beverages, letting loose with angry outbursts or trying to bottle up or repress anger. In support of the relevance of these possible healthy coping mechanisms for police officers, past research has documented associations between police stressor and exercise (Norvell & Belles, 1993), sleep (Vila, 1996), support from fellow officers (Gershon et al., 2009) and religiosity (Beehr et al., 1995). Past research has also found associations between police stressors and the more unhealthy coping mechanisms of alcohol consumption (Beehr et al., 1995; Ballenger et al., 2011; Leino et al., 2011; Menard & Arter, 2013; Violanti et al., 2011; Gershon et al., 2009) and repressing emotions (Anderson & Lo, 2011), especially anger (Ivie & Garland, 2011; ‘act as if nothing is bothering you’: Gershon et al., 2009: 279).

Limited research has been conducted to document how specific coping mechanisms could mediate (or weaken) associations between police stressors and negative outcomes. Gershon et al. (2009) examined which police scenarios were perceived as most stressful to officers (such as ‘critical incidents’ and ‘organizational unfairness’), finding that ‘organizational unfairness’ received the highest ratings and ‘critical incidents’ received the lowest ratings. They also examined a number of possible negative outcomes for police officers (such as health problems, anxiety, depression, partner aggression, professional burnout). Finally, Gershon et al. examined the prevalence of healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms as reported by officers (such as police support, religiosity, alcohol, repressed emotions), finding that the unhealthy coping mechanisms of alcohol consumption and repressed emotions (‘act as if nothing is bothering you’: 2009: 279) were most prevalently reported by the officers, but also most associated with anxiety and professional burnout. These findings demonstrate that the most prevalently used coping mechanisms by stressed

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police officers may not necessarily be the most healthy coping mechanisms, and they may not always be associated with reduced risk for negative outcomes (Anderson & Lo, 2011; Ivie & Garland, 2011; Regehr et al., 2013; Yun et al., 2013).

New Features of the Present Study One new feature of the present study is that it adds to the limited research documenting which specific coping mechanisms police officers under stress are most likely to use, and whether these coping mechanisms can mediate (or weaken) the risk for negative outcomes associated with police stressors. Compared to past research, the present study expanded the set of coping mechanisms evaluated to six healthy mechanisms (exercise, sleep, eating fruit and vegetables, family support, police support, religiosity) and six unhealthy mechanisms (alcohol, tobacco, eating snack foods, caffeine consumption, expressed anger, repressed anger). Compared to past research, the present study also expanded the set of negative outcomes evaluated to include health problems, low self-esteem, aggression to the romantic partner and aggression to the police partner. Finally, the present study provided the first mediational analysis to determine whether the coping mechanisms most used by officers exposed to high levels of police stressors can be documented to mediate the officers’ risks for negative outcomes. In other words, does the removal of the coping mechanism enhance the association between police stressors and negative outcomes or does it weaken it? Results from the present study may be used by employee assistance programmes to target changes in coping mechanisms used by officers to help them reduce negative outcomes when they are exposed to high levels of police stressors.

Method Participants A total of 276 police officers returned the questionnaire, with a response rate of 78.6% after three reminders to 18 Pennsylvania police departments, each having between 5 and 100 sworn officers (93% men; 90% Caucasian; 51% Patrol Officer rank; 40% with college or graduate degrees; mean age = 41.2 years, SD = 9.3; mean years of service = 15.6, SD = 8.4; 69% married; mean number of children = 1.8, SD = 1.3; mean family income = $98,000, SD = $46,000). Of these 276 officers who responded, 201 (72.8%) officers provided complete information on the police stress measure used in the present study (96% men; 91% Caucasian; 55% with Patrol Officer rank; 41% with college or graduate degrees; mean age = 40.3 years, SD = 8.9; mean years of police service = 14.7, SD = 8.3; 68% married; mean number of children = 1.8, SD = 1.3; mean family income = $97,000, SD = $45,000). (Note: Some of the 201 study participants failed to respond to some measures used in the present study for negative outcomes and coping mechanisms, so sample sizes for some analyses were smaller than 201, as shown in results tables.)

Procedures Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to police officers in the format requested by their departments, either using paper copies that could be sealed in large envelopes and returned with postage provided or using the online ‘Survey Methods’ system. The 10-page questionnaire requested demographic information (age, gender, ethnicity, education, police rank, years of service, marital status, number of children, family income) and completion of the 25-item Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS; Van Hasselt et al., 2008). The questionnaire also included measures of physical, psychological and interpersonal negative outcomes that could be associated with high levels of police stressors (health problems, poor self-esteem, aggression to the romantic partner, aggression to the police partner). Additionally, the questionnaire asked officers to report six possible healthy coping mechanisms (exercise, sleep, eating fruit and vegetables, family support, police support) and six possible unhealthy coping mechanisms

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(alcohol, tobacco, eating snack foods, expressed anger, repressed anger) that may be used when exposed to high levels of police stressors.

Measurement of Police Stressors The LEOSS is a 25-item measure of police stressors that includes a variety of scenarios possible for police officers (Van Hasselt et al., 2008). The LEOSS was chosen because it is relatively brief and yet it includes a wide variety of scenarios such as ‘critical incidents’, ‘departmental politics’ and ‘home-work conflicts’. For each scenario, officers were asked to use a five-point rating (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always) to report both the ‘likelihood’ and the ‘difficulty’ of each scenario. These two scenario ratings were multiplied, and then the 25 scenario product scores were summed to serve as the officer’s score for exposure to police stressors (� = .923). (NOTE: The original LEOSS application by Van Hasselt et al. used seven-point ratings, but a five-point rating was used throughout the present study to avoid confusion across the many measures included in the questionnaire.)

Measurement of Possible Negative Outcomes s� Health problems were measured with the 16-item scale developed by Chen et al. (1996) that included

complaints in a number of body systems such as chest pains, breathlessness, headaches, dizziness, numbness, nausea, sore muscles, weakness, constipation and ulcers. Officers were asked to use a five-point rating (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always) to report how much they were bothered by each health problem during the past year, then the sum of ratings was used as their score for health problems (� = .823).

s� Self-esteem was measured using the 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Officers were asked to use a five-point rating (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always) to report how much they had each thought during the past year, appropriate items were reversed in their ratings, then the sum of the 10 ratings was used as the self-esteem score (� = .868).

s� Aggression to the romantic partner and aggression to the police partner were measured with the 12-item Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (Caulfield & Riggs, 1992). Officers were asked to use a five-point rating (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always) to report how often during the past year they displayed each behaviour during conflict with the romantic partner and with the police partner. The behaviours included six acts of verbal aggression (swore, refused to talk, sulked, stomped out, cried, said something spiteful, threatened to end the relationship) and six acts of violence (threatened to hit, hit something, threw something, shoved the other person, slapped, hit with a fist). The romantic partner aggression score and the police partner aggression scores were calculated as the sum of the 12 ratings (� = .820 for partner aggression, α = .830 for police aggression).

Measurement of Healthy and Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms The coping mechanisms evaluated for the officers included six healthy habits, cognitions and/or emotions as suggested by the Theory of Threat Appraisal and Coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984): exercise, sleep, eating fruit and vegetables (FRVEG), social support from family, social support from other officers and religiosity. The coping mechanism considered also included six unhealthy habits, cognitions and or emotions: alcohol use, tobacco use, eating snack foods, caffeine consumption, expressed anger (‘anger-out’) and repressed anger (‘anger-in’).

s� Exercise was measured by asking officers to report for each day of the week their usual exercise minutes (for stretching, cardiovascular and strength-training). Their exercise score was the sum of these minutes of three types of exercise across the days of the week.

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s� Sleep was measured by asking officers to report for each day of the week their typical hours of sleep. The sum of these sleep hours across the days of the week served as each officer’s sleep score.

s� Alcohol consumption was measured by asking officers to report for each day of the week their typical number of drinks (with one ‘drink’ described as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or a shot glass of spirits). The sum of these drinks across the days of the week served as each officer’s alcohol consumption score.

s� Tobacco consumption was measured by asking officers to report for each day of the week their typical number of cigarettes (or other tobacco products). The sum of these cigarettes across the days of the week served as each officer’s tobacco consumption score.

s� Fruit and vegetable consumption, snack food consumption and caffeine consumption were measured by asking officers to estimate their consumption during the past week of 51 fruits and vegetables, 12 snack foods high in fat, sugar or salt, regular caffeinated coffee and regular caffeinated tea using a five-point rating (1 = never, 2 = once or twice in the week, 3 = three or more times in the week, 4 = once or twice per day, 5 = three or more times per day). These five-point ratings were then converted to estimated daily servings (1 = 0/7days = .000, 2 = 1/7 days = .143, 3 = 3/7 days = .429, 4 = 7/7 days = 1.00, 5 = 21/7 days = 3.00), with the sum of daily servings calculated across all items in each of the three food groups (Cusatis & Shannon, 1996).

s� Family support and police support were measured by asking officers to use five-point ratings (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always) to respond to the 23-item family subscale of the Family and Friend Social Support Scale (Procidano & Heller, 1983), once for their ‘home family’ and once for their ‘police family’. Appropriate items were reversed and then the sum for the 23 ratings was used as each officer’s scores for family support (α = .940) and for police support (α = .901).

s� Religiosity was measured using the five-item Duke Religion Index (Koenig et al., 1997), for which officers were asked to use five-point ratings for each item. The sum of these ratings was used as each officer’s religiosity score (α = .867).

s� Expressed anger (e.g., ‘lose my temper’, ‘slam doors’, ‘tell them how I feel’) and repressed anger (e.g., ‘boil inside’, ‘hold grudges’, ‘am angrier than willing to admit’) were measured with the two eight-item subscales from the Anger Expression Scale (Speilberger et al., 1985). Officers were asked to use a five-point rating to report how often they experienced each emotional behaviour (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always), with the sum of these ratings used as each officer’s expressed anger (α = .772) and repressed anger scores (α = .803).

Preliminary Data Analyses Before conducting the study’s primary analyses, we examined whether the subset of 201 officers who completed the LEOSS measure of police stressors differed in demographic variables from the subset of 75 officers who did not complete this measure. χ2 analyses were used to compare these two subsets of officers for their gender (male, female), ethnicity (Caucasian, other), police rank (Patrol Officer, other), education (college degree, other) and marital status (married, other). T-tests were used to compare these two subsets of officers for their age, years of service, number of children and family income.

Also before conducting the study’s primary analyses, we examined whether any of these demographic variables were significantly associated with police stressors as reported by the subset of 201 officers who did complete the LEOSS measure. T-tests were used to compare police stressor scores across two groups of gender (male, female), ethnicity (Caucasian, other), police rank (Patrol Officer, other), education (college degree, other) and marital status (married, other). Pearson correlations were used to examine relationships between police stressor scores and age, years of years of service, number of children and family income.

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Data Analysis The first main goal for data analysis in the present study was to examine whether the severity of police stressors reported by the 201 officers was associated with increased risk for physical, psychological and interpersonal negative outcomes. Pearson correlations were used to examine relationships between police stressor scores and scores for each of the following possible negative outcomes: health problems, self-esteem, aggression to romantic partners and aggression to police partners.

The second main goal for data analysis was to identify which of the six healthy and six unhealthy coping mechanisms reported by the 201 officers were most significantly associated with their exposure to police stressors. Stepwise multiple regression was used, with the LEOSS score for police stressors used as the criterion variable, with scores for the 12 coping mechanisms used as the predictor variables: exercise, sleep, fruits and vegetables, family support, police support, religiosity, alcohol, tobacco, snack foods, caffeine, expressed anger, repressed anger. To focus only on coping mechanisms with the strongest relationships to police stressors, the p value required for significance in these analyses was set at .01 rather than the traditional p < .05.

The third main goal for data analysis was to use mediational analysis (Baron & Kenny, 1986) to examine whether significant coping mechanisms identified above could mediate (or weaken) associations between police stressors and negative outcomes. The first requirement for documenting mediation is the finding of significant bivariate correlations between each pair of variables: the predictor variable (police stressors), the mediating variable (coping mechanisms), and the outcome variable (health problems, self-esteem, partner aggression, police aggression). The second requirement is showing that when the mediating variable is partialled out, a drop occurs in the percentage of variance the predictor explains for the outcome variable (the R2 change). A drop of R2 change to insignificance means the mediating variable completely mediates (or weakens) the association between predictor and outcome, and a drop of R2 change by 50% or more (even if still significant) means the mediating variable partially mediates (weakens) the association between predictor and outcome. (In these mediational analyses, we again used a conservative criterion value of p < .01 to consider variable relationships ‘statistically significant’.) Finally, to confirm that any pathways of mediation identified by the above causal steps method demonstrated goodness-of-fit, AMOS 21 and SPSS 21 software were used to calculate four common goodness-of-fit values: relative χ2 with values 5.00 or less suggesting acceptable fit, and CFI, NFI, and IFI with values .90 and above suggesting acceptable fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999).

Results Preliminary Analyses of Demographic Variables Associated with Police Stressors In the comparison of demographic variables for the 201 officers who completed the present study’s measure of police stressors and the 75 officers who did not complete it, χ2 analyses found a greater percentage of males (p = .004) and Patrol Officer rank (p = .008) for the subset that completed the measure. However, χ2 analyses found no significant differences between the two subsets of officers with Caucasian ethnicity (p = .422), with college educations (p = .354) or who were married (p = .791). T-tests revealed that officers who completed the stressors measure were younger (p = .009) and had fewer years of service (p = .007) than those who did not complete it. However, t-tests found no significant differences between the two subsets in number of children (p = .758) or family income (p = .333).

Of the nine demographic variables considered, only marital status was found significantly associated with the officers’ reported exposure to police stressors (p = .017) with married officers reporting lower stressor scores (mean = 125.42, SD = 77.4) than did unmarried officers (mean = 152.26, SD = 66.4). Police stressor scores were not significantly associated with gender (p = .935), ethnicity (p = .080), police rank (p = .054), college education (p =.051), age (p = .530), years of service (p = .194), number of children (p = .270) or family income (p = .604).

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Negative Outcomes Associated with Police Stressors Bivariate Pearson correlations revealed that officers with higher exposure to police stressors were at greater risk for all four negative outcomes examined in the present study: they reported more health problems (p = .000), lower self-esteem (p = .013), more aggression to romantic partners (p = .030) and more aggression to police partners (p = .035) (see Table 1).

Table 1: Bivariate correlations between police stressors (Van Hasselt et al., 2008), health problems (Chen et al., 1996), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965), aggression to the romantic partner (Caulfield & Riggs, 1992) and aggression

to the police partner (Caulfield & Riggs, 1992) Stressors Problems Esteem Aggression Aggression

Police Stressors X .262*** -.183* .161* .164* (n = 201) (n = 184) (n = 183) (n = 165)

Health Problems X -.279*** .294*** .370*** (n = 186) (n = 178) (n = 164)

Self-Esteem X -.282*** -.127 (n = 165) (n = 151)

Partner Aggression X .369*** (n = 158)

Police Aggression X

(*p < .05, **p < .01, *** p < .001)

Coping Mechanisms Most Significantly Associated with Police Stressors Stepwise multiple regression revealed that of all 12 possible coping mechanisms considered in the present study, repressed anger was most significantly associated with police stressors (p = .000): officers with the highest scores for police stressors tended to report the highest scores for repressed anger (see Table 2).

Table 2: Stepwise multiple regression results for six ‘healthy’ coping mechanisms and six ‘unhealthy’ coping mechanisms associated with police stressors (using a requirement of p < .01)

Coping Mechanisms Beta t p Repressed anger (Spielberger et al., 1985) .326 4.53 .000 R2 = .107

F (1, 172)

= 20.51

p = .000 Excluded variables: Exercise (minutes/week) -.011 .15 .878

Sleep (hours/week) -.145 2.02 .045

Fruits and vegetables (servings/day) .065 .90 .368

Family support (Procidano & Heller, 1983) -.013 .18 .855

Police support (Procidano & Heller, 1983) .134 1.86 .064

Religiosity (Koenig et al., 1997) -.026 .36 .723

Alcohol (drinks/week) -.037 .51 .608

Tobacco (cigarettes/week) -.050 .67 .501

Snack foods (servings/day) .016 .22 .830

Caffeine (servings/day) .042 .58 .564 Expressed anger (Spielberger et al., 1985) .022 .26 .797

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Does Repressed Anger Mediate Associations between Stressors and Negative Outcomes? Mediation analysis revealed that the unhealthy coping mechanism of repressed anger completely mediated associations between police stressors and all four negative outcomes considered in the present study: health problems, low self-esteem, partner aggression and police aggression. When repressed anger was removed, the percentage of variance in health problems explained by police stressors (R2 change) dropped by 77% to non-significance (see Table 3). When repressed anger was removed, the association between police stressors and low self-esteem dropped 69% to non-significance (see Table 4). When repressed anger was removed, the association between police stressors and partner aggression dropped 67% to non-significance (see Table 5). When repressed anger was removed, the association between police stressors and police aggression dropped 62% to non-significance (see Table 6).

Table 3: Mediation analysis results (Baron & Kenny, 1986) to determine whether repressed anger mediates associations between police stressors and health problems

Step Correlation examined r n p R2 change (1) Police stressors and health problems .262 201 .000 .069 (2) Police stressors and repressed anger .337 198 .000

(3) Repressed anger and health problems .398 198 .000 (4) Police stressors and health problems (partialling out repressed anger) 137 195 .054 (ns) .016

Conclusion: Repressed anger completely mediates the association between police stressors and health problems because when it is partialled out first, R2 change drops 77% to non-significance.

Table 4: Mediation analysis results (Baron & Kenny, 1986) to determine whether repressed anger mediates associations between police stressors and self-esteem

Step Correlation examined r n p R2 change (1) Police stressors and self-esteem -.189 182 .011 .036 (2) Police stressors and repressed anger .337 198 .000

(3) Repressed anger and self-esteem -.338 179 .000 (4) Police stressors and self-esteem (partialling out repressed anger) -.110 176 .143 (ns) .011

Conclusion: Repressed anger completely mediates the association between police stressors and self-esteem because when it is partialled out first, R2 change drops 69% to non-significance.

Table 5: Mediation analysis results (Baron & Kenny, 1986) to determine whether repressed anger mediates associations between police stressors and aggression to romantic partners.

Step Correlation examined r n p R2 change (1) Police stressors and partner aggression .182 177 .015 .033 (2) Police stressors and repressed anger .337 198 .000

(3) Repressed anger and partner aggression .229 174 .000 (4) Police stressors and partner aggression (partialling out repressed anger) .108 171 .157 (ns) .011

Conclusion: Repressed anger completely mediates the association between police stressors and partner aggression because when it is partialled out first, R2 change drops 67% to non-significance.

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Table 6: Mediation analysis results (Baron & Kenny, 1986) to determine whether repressed anger mediates associations between police stressors and aggression to police partner.

Step Correlation examined r n p R2 change (1) Police stressors and police aggression .169 160 .033 .029 (2) Police stressors and repressed anger .337 198 .000

(3) Repressed anger and police aggression .274 160 .001

(4) Police stressors and police aggression (partialling out repressed anger) .111 154 .166 (ns) .011

Conclusion: Repressed anger completely mediates the association between police stressors and police aggression because when it is partialled out first, R2 change drops 62% to non-significance.

Discussion Past research (Gershon et al., 2009) suggests that coping mechanisms used most prevalently by stressed police officers may be unhealthy actions that actually are associated with increased risk for negative outcomes. Results from the present study suggest the same pattern: even though the ‘unhealthy’ coping mechanism of repressed anger was most prevalently reported by officers experiencing high levels of police stressors, it was only when its effects were removed that associations between police stressors and four negative outcomes (health problems, low self-esteem, partner aggression, police aggression) weakened to the point of insignificance. Results from the present study suggest that anger-management or anger-expression skills should be the focus of employee assistance programmes to reduce the risk of negative physical, psychological and social outcomes for police officers exposed to high levels of occupational stressors.

Past research has documented that such repressed anger can be released constructively using a number of techniques (Novaco, 1977; Sarason et al., 1979; DiGiuseppe & Tafrate, 2003). For example, one approach includes four A-B- C-D steps in interaction with specific individuals who tend to produce anger or frustration: (1) ‘When you do, say A’ (2) ‘I feel, react, interpret it as B’ (3) ‘My request is that in the future you try instead to do C’ (4) ‘Do you have requests for my behaviour to be D-different?’ Another approach to reduce repressed anger is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Sarason et al., 1979; Deffenbacher et al., 1988; Bryant et al., 1999), in which the person tries to ‘re-think’ the situation such as considering that the other person had good intentions, that we all make mistakes, or that this situation or its consequences are not that important or lasting. Still another possible approach to release repressed anger and prevent it from having negative consequences for police officers would be creative outlets such as with writing, art or music (Sarason et al., 1979; Anshel et al., 2013; Clark-Miller & Brady, 2013).

Study Limitations One limitation of the present study was that it included mostly male Caucasian officers from Pennsylvania. Future research could include samples of police officers that are more diverse in gender, ethnicity and region to determine whether the patterns found in the present study apply to them as well.

Another limitation of the present study is that although the term ‘negative outcomes’ is used for the health problems, low self-esteem, partner aggression and police aggression found significantly associated with high levels of police stressors, the correlational nature of the present data do not clarify which of these variables is the cause and which is the consequence. For example, it could be that exposure to many police stressors (perhaps via high levels of cortisol and tissue inflammation) causes increases in health problems, or it could be that having many body ailments increases the officer’s awareness and concern over stressors encountered in everyday police work.

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Police Stressors, Negative Outcomes Associated with Them and Coping Mechanisms that May Reduce These Associations