Work-related stress and mental well-being among police personnel at Mangalore jurisdiction

Abstract

Introduction: Stress is the physiological response to anything that requires focus or movement. Police officers are responsible for enforcing laws in their jurisdiction, as there is a rise in the personal risk of verbal and physical assaults, as well as ongoing involvement in a range of unpleasant situations, the duties of law enforcement officers tend to become fundamentally stressful. This research aims to assess the work related stress and mental wellbeing among police personnel at Mangalore jurisdiction. Methods: Descriptive study was conducted with 220 police personnel from Mangalore Jurisdiction from 3rd March 2023 to 31st March 2023. Operational Police Stress Questionnaire and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales were used to gather data from participants selected through a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. To determine the relationship between police officers' mental wellness and their level of work-related stress, Karl Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was calculated. Results: Most 87.3% of the police personnel had high stress followed by 10.5% of police personnel had medium stress and 2.2% of police personnel had low stress. Majority 59.6% of police personnel had medium mental wellbeing, 35.9% had high mental wellbeing and 4.5% had low mental wellbeing. The results also showed that there was no significant correlation (r=0.034) between work related stress and mental wellbeing among police personnel. Conclusion: This study concluded that there is high work-related stress among police personnel at Mangalore jurisdiction which is directly or indirectly affecting their mental wellbeing.