The influence of operational and organizational stressors on the well-being of municipal police officers

Abstract

Background: Helping professions are at a high risk of developing occupational stress that can cause negative effects at individual and organizational levels.

Objectives: This article attempts to examine the presence of operational and organizational stressors as potential predictors of burnout and psychosomatic symptoms among municipal police officers.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of municipal police officers working in a town in Northern Italy was conducted. A self-report questionnaire was administered to all the officers serving the population of this town (N = 88).

Results: Regression analyses revealed that organizational stressors affected emotional exhaustion and cynicism, whereas operational stressors were associated with psychosomatic symptoms.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that operational and organizational stressors can affect the level of psychosomatic well-being of municipal police officers, but at the same time reveal the existence of their specific effects on the outcome variables. In this perspective, individual psychological support and group interventions should be carried out not only to deal with traumatic events but also to manage chronic stressors. This is one of the first studies in Italy investigating municipal police officers' well-being as potentially related to specific job stressors. Nevertheless, our results are based on police officers employed by the municipality of a single town; it would be therefore useful to extend the research to larger samples.