The Effect of Police Officers’ Gardening Activity Level, Plant Preferences, and Key Variables on Resilience

Background and objective: This study examines the effect of gardening activity level, plant preference, and key variables of police officers on resilience.Methods: A total of 105 male and female respondents with an average age of 40.6 ± 9.3 were surveyed and analyzed.Results: Respondents with older age, higher education, higher average monthly income, and longer period of service tended to show higher means of gardening activity level. Among the three factors of resilience (control, sociability, and positivity), control was higher in the graduate school group than other groups, showing statistical significance. Tulipa spp. and Narcissus spp. showed the highest preferences among the 8 cultivars of flowering plants, followed by Iris spp., Dahlia spp., Allium giantium, Eustoma grandiflourm, Zantedeschia spp. > Lilium Oriental Hybrids. And, as a result of examining the preferences for 6 plant colors, yellow and green were preferred the most, followed by white, blue, orange, and then red, showing statistical significance. The resilience of police officers showed a positive correlation with gardening activity level, multidimensional calling, job satisfaction, and plant preferences, and a negative correlation with stress level and job burnout, showing statistical significance. Regression analysis was conducted to determine the effect of gardening activity level, plant cultivar and color preference, multidimensional calling measure, job burnout, stress level, and demographic variables (control variables) on resilience. The results showed that job burnout had the greatest impact on resilience. The results of this study suggest that it will be possible to increase the resilience effect for police officers with severe trauma by using mostly yellow plants when forming gardens in the streets or the workplaces of police officers, and also by using Tulipa spp. for spring.Conclusion: The resilience effect of the natural environment through the application of plants to police officers with severe occupational trauma could improve the quality of life and relieve stress.