NCJ Number
87739
Journal
Police Journal Volume: 56 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-March 1983) Pages: 60-67
Date Published
1983
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study of life events stressors and patterns of physical reactions in 112 British police officers reveals a relative lack of physical symptoms of anxiety in senior police officers.
Abstract
A Life-Events Inventory was adopted from the study by Cochrane and Robertson (1973). Subjects were asked to indicate which of the described events were experienced during the past year and to indicate how much stress the relevant events caused. The Bodily Sensations Questionnaire was designed to determine whether subjects experienced sensations arising out of bodily reactions associated with stress or tension in the subject's job. Twenty-three senior hospital administrators were also administered the inventories to help evaluate the scores obtained from the police officers. The most common life-events changes in the police officers during the previous year related to recent promotion, problems with their own children, trouble with superiors at work, and change in hour or conditions in the present job. The first three of these events are associated with a moderate degree of stress. About a quarter of the officers reported 'moderate' frequency of physical reactions such as sensations for stomach and racing heart and sweating. The pattern was similar for the hospital administrators, although they scored higher on most of the items. The relative lack of physical symptoms of anxiety in the police officers may imply effective coping with occupational stress, or a lack of self-reported physical reactions may suggest limited awareness, suppression, denial, or control of physical responses, which may be deleterious to physical and mental health over the long term. Tabular data and 14 references are provided.