Data from: Association of work-related stress with mental health problems in a special police force unit

Objectives. Law and order enforcement tasks may expose special force
police officers to significant psychosocial risk factors. The aim of this
work is to investigate the relationship between job stress and the
presence of mental health symptoms while controlling for
socio-demographical, occupational and personality variables in special
force police officers. Method: At different time points, 292 out of 294
members of the 'VI Reparto Mobile', a special police force
engaged exclusively in the enforcement of law and order, responded to our
invitation to complete questionnaires for the assessment of personality
traits, work-related stress (using the demand-control-support (DCS) and
the effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) models), and mental health problems such
as depression, anxiety and burnout. Results: Regression analyses showed
that lower levels of support and reward and higher levels of effort and
overcomittment were associated with higher levels of mental health
symptoms. Psychological screening revealed 21 (7.3%) likely cases of mild
depression (BDI ≥10). Officers who had experienced a discrepancy between
work effort and rewards showed a marked increase in the risk of depression
(OR 7.89 95%CI 2.32-26.82) when compared with their counterparts who did
not perceive themselves to be in a condition of distress. Conclusions: The
findings of this study suggest that self-reported work-related stress may
play a role in the development of mental health problems in police
officers. The prevalence of mental health symptoms in the cohort
investigated here was low, but not negligible in the case of depression.
Since special forces police officers have to perform sensitive tasks for
which a healthy psychological functioning is needed, the results of this
study suggest that steps should be taken to prevent distress and improve
the mental well-being of these workers.