Gender and police stress: The convergent and divergent impact of work environment, work‐family conflict, and stress coping mechanisms of female and male police officers

Abstract

This study explores the impact of work environment, work‐family conflict, and coping mechanisms on physical and psychological stresses of police officers. Using survey data from a large police department located in the New England area, we pay specific attention to analyzing similar and dissimilar results while comparing across gender groups. Our research indicates that for both gender groups, work‐family conflict (spillover) and destructive coping mechanisms are among the strongest and most consistent stressors, regardless of the measures of dependent variable employed (i.e. somatization, anxiety and depression). On the other hand, we also find divergent impact of exposures to negative work environment, camaraderie, and constructive coping mechanisms on different measures of work related stresses across the two gender groups. Implications of these convergent and divergent effects are discussed.

Citation

He, N., Zhao, J. and Archbold, C.A. (2002), "Gender and police stress: The convergent and divergent impact of work environment, work‐family conflict, and stress coping mechanisms of female and male police officers", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 687-708. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510210450631