Abstract
Purpose
(1) To identify work related stressors that are associated with psychiatric symptoms in a Swiss sample of policemen and (2) to develop a model for identifying officers at risk for developing mental health problems.
Method
The study design is cross sectional. A total of 354 male police officers answered a questionnaire assessing a wide spectrum of work related stressors. Psychiatric symptoms were assessed using the “TST questionnaire” (Langner in J Health Hum Behav 4, 269–276, 1962). Logistic regression with backward procedure was used to identify a set of variables collectively associated with high scores for psychiatric symptoms.
Results
A total of 42 (11.9%) officers had a high score for psychiatric symptoms. Nearly all potential stressors considered were significantly associated (at P < 0.05) with a high score for psychiatric symptoms. A significant model including 6 independent variables was identified: lack of support from superior and organization OR = 3.58 (1.58–8.13), self perception of bad quality work OR = 2.99 (1.35–6.59), inadequate work schedule OR = 2.84 (1.22–6.62), high mental/intellectual demand OR = 2.56 (1.12–5.86), age (in decades) OR = 1.82 (1.21–2.73), and score for physical environment complaints OR = 1.30 (1.03–1.64).
Conclusions
Most of work stressors considered are associated with psychiatric symptoms. Prevention should target the most frequent stressors with high association to symptoms. Complaints of police officers about stressors should receive proper consideration by the management of public administration. Such complaints might be the expression of psychiatric caseness requiring medical assistance. Particular attention should be given to police officers complaining about many stressors identified in this study’s multiple model.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adshead G (1997) Police suicide: epidemic in blue. Br J Psychiatry 171:196
Amiel R (1986) La notion de santé mentale et son évaluation dans les études épidémiologiques à visées préventives en médecine du travail et en santé communautaire. Arch Mal Prof 47:1–14
Berg AM, Hem E, Lau B, Haseth K, Ekeberg O (2005) Stress in the Norwegian police service. Occup Med (Oxford) 55:113–120
Biggam FH, Power KG, Macdonald RR, Carcary WB, Moodie E (1997) Self-perceived occupational stress and distress in a Scottish police force. Work Stress 11:118–133
Brough P (2004) Comparing the influence of traumatic and organizational stressors on the psychological health of police, fire, and ambulance officers. Int J Stress Manag 11:227–244
Brown J, Fielding J, Grover J (1999) Distinguishing traumatic, vicarious and routine operational stressor exposure and attendant adverse consequences in a sample of police officers. Work Stress 13:312–325
Carlier IV, Lamberts RD, Gersons BP (1997) Risk factors for posttraumatic stress symptomatology in police officers: a prospective analysis. J Nerv Ment Dis 185:498–506
Collins PA, Gibbs AC (2003) Stress in police officers: a study of the origins, prevalence and severity of stress-related symptoms within a county police force. Occup Med (Oxford) 53:256–264
Cronbach LJ (1951) Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 16:297–334
De Lange AH, Taris TW, Kompier MAJ, Houtman ILD, Bongers PM (2004) The relationships between work characteristics and mental health: examining normal, reversed and reciprocal relationships in a 4-wave study. Work Stress 18:149–166
Franke WD, Ramey SL, Shelley MC (2002) Relationship between cardiovascular disease morbidity, risk factors, and stress in a law enforcement cohort. J Occup Environ Med 44:1182–1189
Freese J (2002) Least likely observations in regression models for categorical outcomes. Stata J 2:296–300
Frese M, Zapf D (1988) Methodological issues in the study of work stress: objective vs subjective measurement of work stress and the question of longitudinal studies. In: Cooper C, Payne R (eds) Causes, coping and consequences of stress at work. Wiley, Chichester, pp 375–411
Gershon RR, Lin S, Li X (2002) Work stress in aging police officers. J Occup Environ Med 44:160–167
Godin I, Kittel F, Coppieters Y, Siegrist J (2005) A prospective study of cumulative job stress in relation to mental health. BMC Public Health 5:67
Hart PM, Cotton P (2003) Conventional wisdom is often misleading: police stress within an organisational health framework. In: Dollard MF, Winefield AH, Winefield HR (eds) Occupational stress in the service professions. Taylor & Francis, London, pp 103–141
Huddleston L, Stephens C, Paton D (2007) An evaluation of traumatic and organizational experiences on the psychological health of New Zealand police recruits. Work 28:199–207
Johnson DR, Meile RL (1981) Does dimensionality bias in Langner’s 22-item index affect the validity of social status comparisons? An empirical investigation. J Health Soc Behav 22:415–433
Juillard G, Blondet M, Boitel C, Leroux N, Pardon N, Martin J et al (1985) Etude des relations d’un test de santé totale avec l’état de santé et certains facteurs professionnels. Arch Mal Prof 46:158–161
Kessler RC, Ormel J, Demler O, Stang PE (2003) Comorbid mental disorders account for the role impairment of commonly occurring chronic physical disorders: results from the National Comorbidity Survey. J Occup Environ Med 45:1257–1266
Kop N, Schaufeli W, Euwema M (1999) Burnout, job stress and violent behaviour among Dutch police officers. Work Stress 13:326–340
Langner TS (1962) A twenty-two item screening score of psychiatric symptoms indicating impairment. J Health Hum Behav 4:269–276
Laurent P, Buisset C, Guisnet P, Buchalski V, Bonafos V, Constant B et al (1995) Relation entre le résultat au test de santé totale (de Langner et R.Amiel) et structure organisationnelle de l’entreprise (d’après Mintzberg) dans les activités tertiaires : enquête transversale réalisée dans la région lilloise du 1er avril 1993 au 31 mars 1994. Archives des maladies professionnelles, 56, 535–542
Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJ (2006) Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet 367:1747–1757
Manis J, Brawer M, Hunt C, Kercher L (1963) Validating a mental health scale. Am Sociol Rev 28:108–116
McCreary DR, Thompson MM (2006) Development of two reliable and valid measures of stressors in policing: the operational and organizational police stress questionnaires. Int J Stress Manag 13:494–518
Pregibon D (1981) Logistics regression diagnostics. Ann Stat 9:705–724
Ramaciotti D, Perriard J (2000) Die Kosten des Stresses in der Schweiz Zürich: Psychologie der Universität Neuenburg & ERGOrama AG, Genf im Auftrag des SECO
Royall RM (1986) Model robust confidence intervals using maximum likelihood estimators. Int Stat Rev 54:221–226
Schmidtke A, Fricke S, Lester D (1999) Suicide among German federal and state police officers. Psychol Rep 84:157–166
Shader RI, Ebert MH, Harmatz JS (1971) Langner’s psychiatric impairment scale: a short screening device. Am J Psychiatry 128:596–601
Spector PE (2006) Method variance in organizational research: truth or urban legend. Organ Res Methods 9:221–231
Stansfeld SA, Fuhrer R, Shipley MJ, Marmot MG (1999) Work characteristics predict psychiatric disorder: prospective results from the Whitehall II Study. Occup Environ Med 56:302–307
The WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium (2004) Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the world health organization world mental health surveys. JAMA 291:2581–2590
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the representatives of professional associations who promoted our study in the cantonal administration where it took place. We are grateful to police officers who took the time to answer our questionnaire. Special thanks go to C. Latty for overseeing data entry, D. Chouanière for internal review, J. De Puy and G. Leistner for editorial advice, and to Y. Randin for IT and technical support during the project. We are grateful to N. Zakher, F. Valceschini, and C. Richard for administrative support.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Arial, M., Gonik, V., Wild, P. et al. Association of work related chronic stressors and psychiatric symptoms in a Swiss sample of police officers; a cross sectional questionnaire study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 83, 323–331 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-009-0500-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-009-0500-z