Evaluating real-time momentary stress and affect in police officers using a smartphone application

Stress and coping among police personnel in South India

Background

Police personnel experience the highest levels of stress due to the nature and demands of work. Though many researchers have studied these variables quantitatively, there is a lack of qualitative study, particularly in India.

Methods

A qualitative study has been carried out to explore the stress and coping strategies of police personnel. This study conducted in-depth interviews with ten police personnel and three focus group discussions with 22 police personnel.

Results

Thematic analysis revealed five themes: family stressor, personal stressor, work stressor, and adaptive and maladaptive coping. Inability to take leave, multi-tasking, unscheduled excessive working hours, inability to spend time with the family members, and lack of basic amenities to meet personal hygiene were significant factors for their high level of stress.

Conclusion

The results reinforce the need for mitigating the impact of stress by using positive coping strategies and social support resources, which could be achieved through capacity building and mental health programs.

Testifying after an Investigation: Shaping the Mental Health of Public Safety Personnel

In this editorial, we draw on two Canadian cases to interrogate how mass causality events and investigations consume many responders before (e.g., public safety communicators, detachment service assistants), during (e.g., police, fire, paramedics), and after the incident (e.g., coroners, correctional workers, media coverage). Their well-being may suffer from the associated processes and outcomes. In the current article, we focus on the mass causality incident of 2020 in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the investigation following a prisoner death in 2019 in Newfoundland, Canada, to explore how testifying post-incident can be made more palatable for participating public safety personnel (PSP). Specifically, we study how testifying after an adverse event can affect PSP (e.g., recalling, vicarious trauma, triggers) and how best to mitigate the impact of testimony on PSP well-being, with a lens to psychological "recovery" or wellness. We focus here on how to support those who may have to testify in a judicial proceeding or official inquiry, given being investigated for best-intended actions can result in moral injury or a posttraumatic stress injury, both exacerbated by judicial review, charge, accusation, or inquiry.

The Influence of Family Supportive Supervisor Behavior on Employee Creativity: The Mediating Roles of Psychological Capital and Positive Emotion

In an increasingly complex external environment, innovation is an important way for companies to build sustainable competitiveness. This research discusses employee creativity from the perspective of Family Supportive Supervisor Behavior (FSSB) based on conservation of resource theory, social exchange theory, psychological capital theory and emotional spillover theory. Through a series of surveys of employees in different companies and jobs, we can understand the impact of family-supporting supervisors' behavior on their creativity. Combined with the survey data, a structural equation model (SEM) is constructed to analyze the mediating effects of psychological capital and positive emotions based on the causal mediation model. The research found that the positive influence of family-supporting supervisors' behavior on employees' creativity has three forms. First, supervisors improve employees' motivation and sense of efficacy by providing various support resources. Second, supervisors can generate positive spillover effects among employees by influencing employees' psychological state. Third, supervisors stimulate the creativity of subordinates by promoting work participation and mobility. According to the research conclusions, in order to improve the employee creativity, we should provide incentives to encourage supervisors to carry out family support behaviors, identify employee characteristics to help supervisors provide personalized support, cultivate family supportive leaders, and attach importance to emotional support and play the role of psychological capital and positive emotions.

Smartphone-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment of Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Recommendations for Future Studies

Feelings of well-being and happiness fluctuate over time and contexts. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) studies can capture fluctuations in momentary behavior, and experiences by assessing these multiple times per day. Traditionally, EMA was performed using pen and paper. Recently, due to technological advances EMA studies can be conducted more easily with smartphones, a device ubiquitous in our society. The goal of this review was to evaluate the literature on smartphone-based EMA in well-being research in healthy subjects. The systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Searching PubMed and Web of Science, we identified 53 studies using smartphone-based EMA of well-being. Studies were heterogeneous in designs, context, and measures. The average study duration was 12.8 days, with well-being assessed 2-12 times per day. Half of the studies included objective data (e.g. location). Only 47.2% reported compliance, indicating a mean of 71.6%. Well-being fluctuated daily and weekly, with higher well-being in evenings and weekends. These fluctuations disappeared when location and activity were accounted for. On average, being in nature and physical activity relates to higher well-being. Working relates to lower well-being, but workplace and company do influence well-being. The important advantages of using smartphones instead of other devices to collect EMAs are the easier data collection and flexible designs. Smartphone-based EMA reach far larger maximum sample sizes and more easily add objective data to their designs than palm-top/PDA studies. Smartphone-based EMA research is feasible to gain insight in well-being fluctuations and its determinants and offers the opportunity for parallel objective data collection. Most studies currently focus on group comparisons, while studies on individual differences in well-being patterns and fluctuations are lacking. We provide recommendations for future smartphone-based EMA research regarding measures, objective data and analyses.