Hardiness and baton performance among police student trainees

Abstract Following Kobasa’s seminal description of hardiness in 1979, this psychological construct has attained an increased research focus in law enforcement. The present study adds to this research focus by sampling 156 Norwegian police student trainees to investigate whether trainees’ hardiness levels were related to their performance in a high-stress baton exercise. The Dispositional Resilience Scale-15-R was used to measure hardiness and its three components: commitment, challenge, and control. Baton performance was independently evaluated by two examiners. The results of a regression analysis controlling for age and sex revealed that, among the three components, commitment significantly predicted baton performance. Considerable sex differences were observed in the performance scores, where men outperformed women. An interaction model treating sex as a moderator showed that the commitment prediction was aligned across men and women. In conclusion, police educators should increase their focus on hardiness—especially the commitment component—to facilitate the police student trainees’ operational skill training.