The relationship between organisational stressors and mental wellbeing within police officers: a systematic review

“These results are in line with other studies and confirm that policing is a stressful professional occupation [1,2,15,28] and that burnout affects police officers [4,6,24,27].”

“Aligned with recent literature, organisational, as opposed to operational, stressors were reported by officers and staff to be the key stressors [11].”

“These stressful workplace exposures have been found to significantly impact on the mental and physical well-being of police officers (Violanti et al. 2017, Purba and Demou 2019).”

“The subjective well-being of police officers is related to mental health [4].”

“Unlike other types of emergency workers, police officers are potentially exposed to violence daily and are subsequently at greater risk of personal injury, which is further compounded by their responsibilities associated with protecting the public and carrying firearms (Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“Other operational factors include the volume of work, or workload, and threats to safety and risk of injury or death [6,9].”

“They include “lack of support, heavy workloads, interpersonal conflicts with colleagues and supervisors, inadequate resources, time pressures, and an overly bureaucratic organizational system that punishes and harshly manages employees” ([3], p.”

“In policing, job demand stress has consistently been found to be significantly related to poor well-being, mental ill-health, burnout, and psychological distress (Purba and Demou, 2019; Syed et al ., 2020; Wagner et al ., 2019).”

“Consequently, the police may experience negative emotions that contribute and/or cause mental health problems [1,2].”

“Moreover, to improve coping strategies and resilience, a meta-analysis by Purba and Demou (2019) suggested that it is important to increase the support given by superiors and colleagues because the lack of such support is related to mental health outcomes.”

“Moreover, officers face these occupational hazards in the context of unique organizational stressors, such as rotating shifts, chain of command management environment, and cultural stigmas regarding mental health supports (Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“In the meta-analysis conducted by Purba and Demou [66], the importance of support for POs by the organization emerged, in particular from superiors and colleagues, as positive feedback is linked to improved mental health outcomes.”

“Additionally, police officers face organisational pressures such as long shifts, inadequate resources, a lack of support, and increased public demand (Purba & Demou, 2019; Wang et al., 2010).”

“…et al., 2020; Jackman et al., 2020; Ordon et al., 2019), the impact of rapid change, not feeling valued, heavy workloads and the negative characteristics of organisational cultures conversely had an adverse impact upon well-being (Demou et al., 2020; Hesketh et al., 2017; Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“…shifts, poor communication and lack of support from senior ranks and increased workload (Brown and Campbell, 1990; Crowe and Stradling, 1993; Purba and Demou, 2019) and operational stressors in the form of traumatic incidents (Abdollahi, 2002; Brewin, et al., 2020; Hesketh and Tehrani,…”

“However, comparable literature on police officers is limited, even though they too face occupational stressors such as poor management, lack of support from senior ranks, and increased workload (Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“Comparative police/ police staff health studies also contribute to the literature (see Kerswell et al., 2020; Purba & Demou, 2019; Stevelink et al., 2020) particularly around stress and wellbeing.”

“In particular, Purba and Demou (2019) argue that stress from undertaking police work compromises their wellbeing.”

“In particular, Purba and Demou (2019, p. 18) argue police officers experience high level of stress, which is caused by a combination of operational tasks including the constant threat to their physical and mental safety resulting from the expectations that they must control their emotions when…”

“Police officers recognise organisational stressors as being oppressive, unnecessary, unavoidable, and uncontrollable (Purba & Demou, 2019) and research suggests that organisational stress may be more prevalent and may pose a greater threat to the mental health of police officers than operational…”

“This exposure to ongoing occupational stressors, such as the preceding, leads to high levels of burnout and mental health problems in police officers of many countries (Purba and Demou 2019; Queirós et al.”

“2020; Ivleva and Pajarskienė, 2019; Purba and Demou 2019; Violanti et al.”

“mental health disorders [56], and adverse pregnancy outcomes (preterm birth, chance of”

“In turn, stress stemming from these experiences is strongly associated with adverse psychological outcomes (Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“The job of a correctional officer has been recognized as highly demanding and burdensome [1].”

“Organizational sources of stress are those that are found across many types of occupations and can include having to deal with excessive paperwork or unsupportive supervisors (Purba and Demou 2019; Violanti et al.”

“Research outlines the extent of and diversity in the demand on police of fi cers and staff, and the subsequent impact this has both on individual wellbeing and organisational performance (e.g. McCraty and Atkinson, 2012; Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“Indeed, research has shown that being exposed to traumatic events on an ongoing basis can have a significant impact on mental health (Purba and Demou, 2019), and that police officers are particularly vulnerable to PTSIs (Carleton et al., 2019; Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“While several studies have shown that work conditions directly influence personal experiences of physical and psychological strain [2–6], there is little research on whether subjective appraisals, such as perceived job stress and job satisfaction, may affect this relationship.”

“Although burnout syndrome has been observed in all types of occupations, it tends to be more prevalent in some occupational groups, such as public safety personnel [6, 7], physicians [8–10], and teachers [11, 12].”

“These findings are well established (Purba and Demou 2019) and are relevant across a number of countries and jurisdictions (van der Lippe and Lippenyi, 2018).”

“Thatpolicing is a stressful occupation is well documented across a number of countries and jurisdictions (McCarty and Skogan 2013; Terpstra and Schaap 2013; Violanti et al., 2017; van der Lippe et al., 2011; Purba and Demou 2019; Duxbury et al., 2020; Queirós et al., 2020).”

“The police profession is globally considered a highstrain and high-risk profession, affecting police officers’ lifestyle [3], as well as physical [4,5], mental [6] and social health [7,8].”

“…incidents could lead to of fi cers developing one or more psychosocial conditions, which are regularly identi fi ed in the literature as trauma including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, burnout, fatigue or stress (cf. Bell et al., 2021; Fear et al., 2014; Lentz et al., 2021; Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“For example, a systematic review of the relevant publications from 1990 to 2017 was completed [14].”

“Police of fi cers recognise organisational stressors as being oppressive, unnecessary, unavoidable, and uncontrollable (Purba and Demou, 2019), and research suggests that they may pose a greater threat to the mental health of police of fi cers than operational stressors (Brough, 2004; Galanis et al.,…”

“Conversely, support from various sources may help officers to manage occupational stress, resulting in a lower likelihood of burnout at work (Mansour & Tremblay, 2016; Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“Police culture and mental health stigma A prevailing barrier to police wellbeing that continues to feature in recent research is that of police culture, especially regarding mental health stigma (see Demou et al., 2020; Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“…pay, long working hours, heavy workload, inconsistent leadership and excessive paperwork (Biggam et al. et al., 1997; Evans and Coman, 1993; Purba and Demou, 2019); personality traits, such as neuroticism and conscientiousness (Louw, 2014); and psychological characteristics, such as…”

“Law enforcement is among the most dangerous and stressful occupations (Purba and Demou 2019; Syed et al. 2020; Violanti et al. 2017).”

“Systematic reviews of existing studies on psychological outcomes for police officers revealed that factors associated with stress include higher job demands, poor relationships with colleagues, job pressure, low rewards, role ambiguity, and lack of social support [3, 18].”

“The stress of life across the lifespan (e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic, organizational stress) is known to be associated with poor mental well-being [2, 3].”

“Being a law enforcement officer appears to be an extremely demanding and difficult occupation because of the qualities of modern-day societies such as the rise in physical violence with guns in metropolitan areas, as well as insufficient human and material resources (Purba and Demou 2019).”

“Front-line public sector work involves organizational stressors from how public services are managed (Purba & Demou, 2019) and cycles of politicized reform (Brunetto & Beattie, 2020).”

“A systematic review showed that the organizational stressors most often associated with mental health outcomes include the lack of support 20 .”

“2013; Purba and Demou 2019).”

“Workplace stressors can have a significant associations with health outcomes including lack of support, high demands, occupational pressures, administrative/organizational pressures and long working hours (Purba and Demou, 2019).”

“Such adverse mental health outcomes associated with policing include occupational stress, anxiety, depression, psychiatric symptoms/psychological distress, burnout, and suicidal ideation (Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“Although occupational stressors are challenging to minimize, the prominance of organizational stressors in policing has been widely documented (Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“While it has been generally noted that police personnel may experience a range of symptoms in response to such stressors, much of the existing literature that explores operational stressors tends to focus on critical incident stress responses or the stressors that are considered as inherent to police work itself (Stin…”

“Law enforcement is recognized generally as one of the most stressful of all occupations (Purba & Demou, 2019).”

“…masculinist parameters of conduct and their negative implications for health and well-being reported in this review, resonate with the findings of previous research [78–81] reporting how organisational and operational stressors affect the psychological wellbeing of police officers more generally.”

“In addition, organizational stressors, such as insufficient help from superiors and a lack of cooperation with coworkers, are more likely to persist for officers, which may increase the likelihood that they will experience burnout (102).”

“Consistent with the JD-R, some studies have indicated a positive correlation between WFC and stress and burnout [28] and a positive association between high levels of WFC and high anxiety levels [29].”

“police organizations is likely to increase the mental capacity of officers and reduce work‐ place stressors [74].”

“Policing is an occupation that has been consistently shown to have significant psychological health impacts on staff (Purba & Demou, 2019; Regehr et al., 2019; Syed et al., 2020; Wagner et al., 2020).”

“For example, police o ffi cers are clearly damaged by stress and trauma (Purba and Demou 2019), they experience physical harm more than any other profession (Health and Safety Executive, 2020), one-third in the UK are female (Home O ffi ce 2023a, 2023b) and procedures for dealing with crimes are often…”

“These have shown to have significant associations with symptoms of burnout, such as emotional exhaustion and reduced self-efficacy, in some cases extending to serious psychological distress and psychiatric symptoms (Purba and Demou 2019).”

“[7] The studies conducted in Africa and India [24,25] revealed that duty‑related stressors such as multi‑tasking, working in sensitive/life‑threatening situations, investigating a critical case, and handling the accused also added to the work pressure of the police personnel.”

“The scholarship on operational and organisational stressors and their impacts on health among law enforcement officers has been well established (Abdollahi 2002, Violanti et al. 2017, Purba and Demou 2019).”

“Operational stressors in policing are well recognized (see, for example J Brown et al., 1999; Purba and Demou, 2019; Shane, 2010; Violanti et al., 2017); they are the acute situations, incidents, and responses to calls for services that also gain police of fi cers ’ recognition as fi rst responders…”

“As for the socio-labor data, the study evidenced that the working time median was 7 (3-16) years, the time exercising in the role was 6 (3-14) years and the workday was 8 (8-8) hours per day and 40 (40-40) hours per week.”

“Unsurprisingly, both stressor types negatively impact of fi cers ’ mental health, increasing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), occupational stress, distress, and emotional exhaustion (Purba and Demou, 2019; Wagner et al., 2020).”

“A recent series of reviews (Alves et al., 2023; Correia et al., 2023; Galanis et al., 2021; Purba & Demou, 2019; Sherwood et al., 2019) have identified common factors associated with stress and burnout in policing, including demographic factors (such as age, gender, marital status), job…”

“Whilst a systematic review of the relationship between organizational stressors and mental wellbeing within police officers identified 36 different organizational stressors, including organizational culture, job pressure, and long working hours that were related to mental wellbeing outcomes among police officers (Purb…”

“Long and unpredictable hours, inadequate support, and lack of autonomy are commonly attributed to organizational stress (Purba and Demou, 2019).”