University police officer stress : an empirical investigation by job function

Abstract

Occupational stress in university police officers and its relationship to job function was examined. The research was directed toward answering questions identifying and comparing the characteristics of stress experienced by university officers, the degree to which university officers perceive job stress, the factors which cause stress, and how stress is manifested and reduced. Data was gathered by using a questionnaire which incorporated three stress measurement instruments and demographic questions. Standardized mail survey procedures were employed to collect data. Questionnaires were mailed to 108 university police departments, nationwide, with a total of 451 valid questionnaires returned, resulting in a response rate of 83.5 percent. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and other appropriate statistical procedures. The results suggest some significant differences in stress levels and stress causes among administrators, supervisors, and line officers, with the supervisory job function group indicating an elevated stress rating. While university police officers in the study reported no greater stress levels than other working adults, it remains clear that the police profession, regardless of the environment, places officers in situations where they can become victims of stress related disorders. When compared to municipal officers, university officers appear to suffer from the same kinds of stress producing activities; however, the frequency of occurrence of the job events is decreased, resulting in university officers suffering less from the consequences of stress. The highest job stressor indicated by university officers was 'killing someone in the line of duty,' when ranked by stress rating alone. However, when the job events were ranked using a weighted average using frequency of occurrence, 'fellow officers not doing their jobs' emerged as the highest stress producer for all university officers. The results of the weighted average scale indicates a need to focus on the frequently occurring stress related events when developing stress reduction programs. This study indicates that a university environment offers unique challenges to the law enforcement professional of today. Stress training programs should be developed and implemented which addresses both highly critical and high frequency job events which appear to concern the university police officer.