Occupational stress and work engagement among military police officers

Abstract

This paper investigates the levels of occupational stress and work engagement among military police officers. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study was conducted with 268 police officers from the 3rd Military Police Battalion of Paraná state. We observed significant levels of occupational stress in 125 (46.7%) police officers. The main stressors were lack of career growth prospects (3.7; ±1.3); inadequate training (3.4; ±1.2); discrimination/favoritism in the work environment (3.1; ±1.4); long working hours (3.0; ±1.4); distribution of tasks (2.7; ±1.1); control type (2.7; ±1.1); gaps in disclosing information about organizational decisions (2.7; ±1.2); low valuation (2.7; ±1.2). Levels of work engagement ranged from 3.8 [medium] to 4.1 [high]. The correlation between occupational stress and work engagement was low for the dimensions of Absorption (r:-.284; p<0.001) and Overall Score (r:-0.393; p<0.001) and moderate for the dimensions Vigor (r:-0.422; p<0.001) and Dedication (r:-0.414; p<0.001). We concluded that an important number of police officers had shown occupational stress. However, they displayed good levels of work engagement and are enthusiastic, inspired, and proud of their work.