NCJ Number
231698
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 37 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2010 Pages: 1030-1040
Date Published
September 2010
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationships between two sources of social stressors and strains and examined surface acting as a mediator of these relationships among police officers.
Abstract
This study examined the relationships of social stressors arising from interactions with civilians and suspects (outsiders) and coworkers and supervisors (insiders) with turnover intention, psychological distress, and emotional exhaustion. It also examined surface actinga way of faking appropriate emotionsas a mediator of these relationships. Using online survey data collected from 196 police officers, the authors found that social stressors from both sources were related to all 3 outcomes and that surface acting mediated these relationships. These results extend the literature on emotional labor by demonstrating that models of emotional labor apply to police officers, whose customers differ from those traditionally found in the literature. This study also extends the occupational stress literature by showing that a similar emotional regulation process linking social stressors from customers to strains also holds for social stressors arising from organizational insiders. Tables and references (Published Abstract)