The Associations Of Occupational Stress With Job Satisfaction And Psychological Health Among Police Officers: An Empirical Research On The Mediating Effect And Related Factors Of Psychological Capital

Objective: Police is recognized as one of the most stressful jobs in the world.Violences,conflicts and threats are the characteristics of the working environment that police face to.Combining with the unique working mode and the management mechanism of police organizations,police often face to great work pressure and psychological pressure during their work.They are always under a state of long-term tension,and are prone to physical and mental exhaustion,anxiety and depression.Compared with other professional groups,the researches on the psychological health of police officers are insufficient in China.It is urgent to carry out systematic researches on psychological health of police officers,especially in the context of Chinese culture,and discover the effective ways to maintain the psychological health of police officers for social stability.The occupational stressors of the police are divided into the operational stressors and the organizational stressors.A large number of studies have shown that the organizational stressors are more common than the operational stressors,and are more likely to have an impact on health.Occupational stress has a negative impact on psychological health of police officers,but its mechanism has not reached a consistent conclusion yet.In recent years,with the development of Positive Psychology and Positive Organizational Behavior,psychological capital has been extensively studied as a personal emotional resource that can lead to employees' positive organizational behavior and combat negative stressors.Psychological capital has been viewed as a mediator to reveal the internal mechanism of variables and drawn to many valuable conclusions.The purpose of this study is to discover the psychological health of police officers in Liaoning Province,study the related occupational factors,explore the mechanism and make constructive suggestions to improve the psychological health of police officers.Specifically,it includes the following aspects: first,to understand the psychological health and occupational stress of police officers;secondly,to study the impact of perceived organizational justice and perceived organizational support on occupational stress of police officers;thirdly,to verify the impact of occupational stress on job satisfaction,anxiety symptoms and depression symptoms of police officers,and to explore the mediating role of psychological capital;finally,to search the related factors of psychological capital,with the purpose to provide the basis for psychological capital intervention in the future.Methods: A cross-sectional study using multi-stage cluster random sampling method was conducted.14 cities in Liaoning Province were divided into three ranks(large city,medium city and small city)according to the population and economic development.One large city,two medium cities and four small cities were randomly selected.In large cities,one municipal public security bureau,four public security sub-bureaus and eight police stations were selected.In medium cities,one municipal public security bureau,two public security sub-bureaus and four police stations were selected.In small cities,one municipal public security bureau,one public security sub-bureau and two police stations were selected.All the police personnel in the organization were selected as the subjects of this study.Data were collected from October to November 2015.After a description of the study purpose was given to the subjects,the informed consent was obtained and a set of self-administered questionnaires was issued.The subjects filled in the questionnaires anonymously.A total of 2840 questionnaires were distributed,and 2181 valid questionnaires were obtained,with the effective response rate of 76.8%.Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to examine the related factors of occupational stress.The bootstrapping method is used to test the mediating effect of psychological capital under SPSS PROCESS program.According to the test results,a theoretical hypothesis model is constructed,and the structural equation model is used to verify the hypothesis.Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the related factors of psychological capital and the moderating effect of organizational identification.Results: Among the respondents,40.07% of the police officers were neutral to their jobs,and 13.25% were satisfied with their jobs.59.97% of the police officers had anxiety symptoms and 63.37% had depression symptoms.Among the related factors of occupational stress,the effort/reward ratio was higher in policemen,officers with chronic diseases,whose rank was supervisor,officers with monthly income of more than 4000 yuan or who worked more than 40 hours per week.The effort/reward ratio was low in traffic patrols and household administration officers.Age and years of service in policing were positively correlated with occupational stress,while dimensions and total score of perceived organizational justice and perceived organizational support were negatively correlated with occupational stress.Among the related factors of psychological health,the scores of anxiety symptoms of police officers were higher in age over 40 years and years of service longer than 20 years.There were higher scores of job satisfaction and lower scores of anxiety symptoms in policewomen.Officers who were single/divorced/separated/ widowed had higher job satisfaction,and officers who were married/cohabited had higher scores of anxiety symptoms.Officers who were undergraduates or above had lower scores of anxiety symptoms,and whose educational level was high school or below had lower scores of depression symptoms.Police officers with chronic diseases had lower job satisfaction,higher scores of anxiety and depression symptoms.The police supervisors had higher job satisfaction and lower scores of depression symptoms.Officers with monthly income of more than 4000 yuan had scores of depression symptoms,and who worked above 40 hours per week had lower job satisfaction and high scores of anxiety symptoms.There were lower scores of job satisfaction in public security officers,lowers scores of anxiety symptoms in househole administration officers,lowers scores of depression symptoms in criminal investigation officers and househole administration officers.Occupational stress was negatively correlated with job satisfaction,and positively correlated with the scores of anxiety and depression symptoms.The interaction between overcommitment and effort/reward ratio had a negative moderating effect on job satisfaction.Psychological capital played a mediating role in the relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction,occupational stress and anxiety symptoms,as well as occupational stress and depression symptoms.Among the related factors of psychological capital,age and years of service in policing were positively correlated with psychological capital.The total score of psychological capital was higher in policewomen.Officers who were single/divorced/ separated/ widowed had a higher level of psychological capital,and whoes educational lever was high school or below had a lower level of psychological capital.The level of psychological capital was lower in officers with chronic diseases.Constables had higher levels of psychological capital is lower.There were lower levels of psychological capital in the officers with monthly income of more than 4000 yuan,or officers who worked more than 40 hours per week.Criminal investigation officers had lower level of a psychological capital.Meaning and competence of psychological empowerment,perceived organizational support,dedication and internalization loyalty to supervisor,four dimensions of perceived organizational justice could explain 60% of the variance of psychological capital.Psychological empowerment,loyalty to supervisor,perceived organizational justice and perceived organizational support could explain 53% of the variance of psychological capital.All variables were positively correlated with psychological capital.Organizational identification played a negative moderating role in the relationship between overcommitment and psychological capital.Conclusions: The psychological health of police officers is poor,with a higher proportion of occupational stress,which urgently needs the attention from the society.Perceived organizational justice and perceived organizational support are negatively correlated with occupational stress.It is necessary to improve perceived organizational justice and perceived organizational support to reduce the level of occupational stress among police officers.Occupational stress has a negative impact on psychological health of police officers,including lower job satisfaction,higher levels of anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms.Overcommitment plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between effort/reward ratio and job satisfaction,and it is necessary to encourage this kind of police officers to leave work psychologically during off-duty hours.Psychological capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between occupational stress and psychological health.The increasement of psychological capital can combat the negative impact of occupational stress.Police organizations should strengthen the development of psychological capital among police officers by improving psychological empowerment,perceived organizational support,loyalty to supervisor and perceived organizational justice,as well as reducing overcommitment among officers with high level of organizational identification.