U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Police Stress Survey - Sources of Stress in Law Enforcement

NCJ Number
80993
Author(s)
C D Spielberger; L G Westberry; K S Grier; G Greenfield
Date Published
1981
Length
75 pages
Annotation
This final report discusses preliminary research and testing of a survey instrument designed to identify sources of police occupational stress. It describes the conduct of the survey among Florida police officers and use of the survey, along with observation data, to evaluate two Florida stress management training programs for police recruits.
Abstract
Eighty stress items were selected for inclusion in a preliminary survey instrument administered to 50 officers who were members of the Fraternal Order of Police lodges in 7 Florida cities. The items were selected after a review of the literature, particularly the works of Kroes and his colleagues. Kroes determined important stress sources to be police administration, job conflict, line-of-duty crises, changing shifts, inactivity, and low salary. Items were also obtained from a small survey of police administrators. Findings of the pilot study were used to reduce the total number of items on the Police Stress Survey in its complete form to 60. The 60-item form was mailed to a large sample of Florida police, 233 of whom responded. Three stressor events were given the highest ratings in both this mail and the pilot study: (1) fellow officer killed in line of duty, (2) killing someone in line of duty, and (3) exposure to battered or dead children. Moreover, 9 of the 10 items rated most stressful in the mail survey were rated equally stressful in the pilot study, although in different order. The effects of demographic variables (officers' rank, age, education, marital status, experience, and location) were investigated and found to have possible correlation to stress ratings, although study limitations preclude definite conclusions. In addition, the factor structure of the survey, which weighted stress items, was examined in a series of analyses which indicated that administrative and organizational factors -such as inadequacies in the judicial and correctional systems and lack of support -- were as important in stress as physical and psychological danger. When survey results were combined with observation data in evaluating the Florida Police Stress Project and the Southeast Florida Institute of Criminal Justice stress training program, the programs were found to be comprehensive and realistic in their coverage of police stress. The response of recruits who had finished the training was similar to that of experienced officers in the mail survey; pretraining scores were much more divergent. Appendixes present a summary of the presurvey literature review, a bibliography of 60 entries, the survey instrument, and a modified version of the instrument developed after the present study.