Operational Stress and Psychological Well-Being Among Police Officers in Benue State Police Command: The Mediating Role of Coping Strategies

Abstract

Psychological Well-being is an important concept used in behaviour sciences to evaluate the state of an individual in terms of perception, feelings, cognition and internal experience. This study investigated Operational Stress and Psychological Well-being among Police Officers in Benue State Police Command: The Mediating Role of Coping Strategies. The study employed a Cross-Sectional Survey Design, where three hundred and fifty seven (357) Police Officers consisting of 219 (61.3%) Males and 134 (37.5%) Females were used for the study. Their ages ranged from 19 to 59 years with the Mean of 38.13 (SD=9.54128). The Operational Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op), Brief-COPE Inventory and Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWB) were used for data collection. Statistical analysis involved the use of Multiple Regression and PROCESS Mediation Analyses. Findings from the hypotheses indicated that, Operational Stress has made an independent significant contribution to Psychological Wellbeing of Police Officers in Benue State Police Command. Coping Strategies significantly influenced Psychological Well-being among Police Officers in Benue State Police Command. The result further showed that, Operational Stress and Coping Strategies jointly influenced Psychological Well-being of Police Officers in Benue State Police Command. Finally, Selfdistraction, Denial, Active Coping, Substance Use, Instrumental Support, Venting, Planning, Acceptance and Religion did not significantly mediate the relationship between Operational Stress and Psychological Well-being among Police Officers; while Emotional Support, Behavioral Disengagement, Positive Reframing, Humor, and Self-blame significantly mediated the relationship between Operational Stress and Psychological Well-being among Police Officers in Benue State Police Command. Based on the findings, it was recommended that, Police Officers should be enlightened on how to manage Operational Stress and develop good coping strategies. On policy basis, it was recommended that, Government should evolve policies that are aimed at training and retraining Police Officers on appropriate Coping Strategies; which will help in reducing Operational Stress and on the other hand increase high level of Psychological Well-being among Police Officers. Also, Non-governmental organizations with caring mind should support Police with logistics that will help reduce Operational Stress. This will help to achieve high state of Psychological Well-being and enhance better policing among Police Officers. Finally, more researches should be encouraged on the subject matter for further identification of long term solutions to problems affecting Psychological Well-being of Police Officers in Benue State Police Command in particular, and Nigeria at large.