DISPOSITIONAL MINDFULNESS MODERATES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL STRESSORS AND PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL

Effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on attention and dispositional mindfulness in young adult males

This study examined the impact of brief mindfulness meditation (BMM) training on attention function and dispositional mindfulness in young males. 126 male participants aged 18-26 from the security industry were recruited, with 66 participants (M = 22.84, SD = 2.41) undergoing 4-week mindfulness meditation training and 60 participants (M = 23.07, SD = 2.29) in the active control group. The intervention was integrated into the participants' schedules. Measures included Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaires (FFMQ), concentration and assignment attention tasks, Attention Network Test (ANT), and saliva cortisol concentration. Findings indicate that brief mindfulness meditation training led to significant improvements in participants' FFMQ scores), with marginally significant enhancements in the executive control network. However, it had no discernible effect on alertness and orientation networks. Additionally, brief mindfulness meditation training enhanced attention allocation to light stimulation and prolonged individual attention. Surprisingly, there was no observed decrease in saliva cortisol concentration among meditation training participants. However, this study did not find a decrease in saliva cortisol concentration in the brief mindfulness meditation group. In conclusion, this study highlights the potential of a 4-week brief mindfulness meditation training program to enhance dispositional mindfulness and specific aspects of attention function in young men, offering practical insights into the benefits of mindfulness meditation practices for this demographic.

Work-related stress amongst legal medical doctors: the need for systematic psychological support. An Italian perspective

Legal medical doctors (LMDs) expertise encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. Work-related stress amongst LMDs is an extremely relevant factor, which affects the quality of LMDs life and work. Whilst it is a better-known problem abroad, this issue is poorly debated in Italy, as demonstrated by this literature analysis. The aim of this paper is to better understand the main sources of stress in the practice of legal medicine in Italy, highlighting the need for systematic psychological support. The risks of work-related stress for the social and health professions are well known in literature. In Italy, however, due to a series of complex circumstances and cultural and research delays, forensic practitioners often seem to be excluded from these kinds of complex issues. The authors, after a series of considerations drawn from a review of the literature and from experience in the forensic and medical field, point out how work in this area entails risks for workers, on par with all others belonging to the helping and social-health professions. They conclude their contribution with a series of proposals for appropriate protocols to cope with such problems for workers in the forensic and medical field.

Key points

Work-related risks for the social and health professionals are widely recognized in the literature.Although legal medical doctors are often thought to be safe from these types of issues, significant risks exist for this category as well.It is important to create appropriate protocols to address outcomes for legal medical doctors.

Trait Mindfulness Moderates the Association Between Stressor Exposure and Perceived Stress in Law Enforcement Officers

Objectives

To test the magnitude of the relationship between self-reported stressor exposure and perceived stress in police officers using a novel measure of daily work events, and whether dispositional mindfulness and resilience moderate this relationship.

Methods

A total of 114 law enforcement officers from a mid-sized Midwestern US city completed daily logs of job stressors and associated perceived stress, as well as additional self-report measures of perceived stress, trait mindfulness and resilience, and demographics and work information. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to cluster job stressors into a smaller number of components in a data-driven manner. Linear mixed-effects models were used to test the relationship between stressor exposure and perceived stress for each component, and the moderation of this relationship by trait mindfulness and resilience.

Results

The PCA categorized stressor exposure into three components: (1) acute or traumatic line-of-duty stressors, (2) routine daily stressors, and (3) interpersonal stressors. Results of mixed models showed robust positive relationships between self-reported stressor exposure and corresponding perceived stress across all 3 components. Dispositional mindfulness (but not resilience) moderated the association between stressor exposure and perceived stress for routine stressors, such that individuals with higher dispositional mindfulness showed a relatively attenuated relationship between exposure to routine daily stressors and resulting perceived stress.

Conclusions

Police officers high in dispositional mindfulness may experience daily routine stressors as less stressful, which can reduce the accumulation of general stress in the long term and which could help buffer against negative health outcomes associated with perceived stress.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03488875

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-021-01707-4.

Influence of Leader Mindfulness on the Emotional Exhaustion of University Teachers: Resources Crossover Effect

This study combined conservation of resources theory with the job demands-resources model to explore the influence of leader mindfulness on the emotional exhaustion of university teachers Using a time-lagged research design, 388 paired data sets were gathered. Multiple regression and bootstrapping were used to test each hypothesis. The results showed that first, leader mindfulness significantly reduces the emotional exhaustion of university teachers. Second, the results showed that workplace telepressure partially mediates the relationship between leader mindfulness and the emotional exhaustion of university teachers. Third, university teacher mindfulness positively moderates the relationship between leader mindfulness and workplace telepressure. Finally, the results of this study indicate that self-efficacy in managing negative emotions negatively moderates the relationship between workplace telepressure and the emotional exhaustion of university teachers. This study empirically examined the interpersonal influence of leader mindfulness and the initial resources effect of university teacher mindfulness and self-efficacy in managing negative emotions from the bilateral perspective of leaders and university teachers.

Trauma and coping mechanisms exhibited by forensic science practitioners: A literature review

Vicarious trauma (VT) has been studied in mental health experts for over 30 years due to their engagement with victims of trauma and exposure to details of events, crimes, and tragedies experienced by their patients. Recently, VT studies have been extended to first responders as they also engage with victims on a level which may affect their own wellbeing. First responders involved in the criminal justice system, such as law enforcement personnel, have benefited from these studies as the results have helped drive organizational change. However, other professionals throughout the criminal justice system, such as forensic scientists, have had far fewer studies published, and the awareness of VT they may be experiencing has only recently come to light. While this review is not exhaustive of all literature on VT, it showcases key studies and research gaps that could benefit the forensic science community and associated criminal justice system professionals.

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Policing is a stressful occupation, which impairs police officers' physical/mental health and elicits burnout, aggressive behaviors and suicide. Resilience and coping facilitate the management of job stress policing, which can be operational or organizational. All these constructs are associated, and they must be assessed by instruments sensitive to policing idiosyncrasies. This study aims to identify operational and organizational stress, burnout, resilient coping and coping strategies among police officers, as well to analyze the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire. A cross-sectional study, with online questionnaires, collected data of 1131 police officers. With principal components and confirmatory factor analysis, PSQ-org revealed adequate psychometric properties, despite the exclusion of four items, and revealed a structure with two factors (poor management and lack of resources, and responsibilities and burden). Considering cut-off points, 88.4% police officers presented high operational stress, 87.2% high organizational stress, 10.9% critical values for burnout and 53.8% low resilient coping, preferring task-orientated than emotion and avoidance coping. Some differences were found according to gender, age and job experience. Job stress and burnout correlated negatively with resilient coping, enthusiasm towards job and task-orientated coping. Results reinforce the importance to invest on police officers' occupational health.

Burnout and Stress Measurement in Police Officers: Literature Review and a Study With the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire

Research has demonstrated that policing is a stressful occupation and that this stress has a negative impact on police officers' mental and physical health, performance, and interactions with citizens. Mental health at the workplace has become a concern due to the costs of depression, anxiety, burnout, and even suicide, which is high among police officers. To ameliorate occupational health, it is therefore crucial to identify stress and burnout levels on a regular basis. However, the instruments frequently used to measure stress have not valorized the specificity of policing tasks. This study aims to: (i) conduct a literature review to identify questionnaires used to assess occupational stress and burnout among police officers; (ii) analyze the psychometric characteristics of a Portuguese version of Operational Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op); and, using the PSQ-Op and other questionnaires, (iii) to identify operational stress, burnout, and distress levels among Portuguese police officers. The literature review identified 108 studies which use a multiplicity of questionnaires to measure burnout or occupational stress among police officers, but few studies use specific police stress questionnaires. Sample sizes were mostly below 500 participants and studies were mainly developed in the last decade in the USA and Brazil, but also in another 24 countries, showing the extent of the interest in this topic. This study applied to 2057 police officers from the National Portuguese Police, a force policing urban centers, and used the PSQ-Op, as well the Spanish Burnout Inventory and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. The results show that the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of PSQ-Op are adequate. Factorial analysis revealed two dimensions defined as social and work issues, which were associated with measures of distress and burnout. Fit indices suggested a second-order solution called operational police stress. Overall, and considering the scale range of each questionnaire, the results showed moderate values of operational stress, distress, and burnout. However, considering their cut-off points, 85% of the sample presented high operational stress levels, 11% critical values for burnout, and 28% high distress levels, with 55% of the sample at risk of a psychological disorder. These results reinforce the need to prevent stress and to invest in police officers' occupational health.