Recovery and Coping: Evaluating the Role of Personal Resources in Police Communications Work
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Document Type
Event
Professional Biography
My name is Patrick Josh, I graduated from Western Oregon University with two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in Psychology and one in Gerontology. During my undergraduate training I worked in a Positive Psychology and Gerontology research lab where I studied themes related to coping, death and dying, and environmental and positive psychology. I'm currently pursuing my Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and my research focus is on coping and recovery activities as they relate to our current study.
My name is Alison Miotke. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. During my undergraduate career, I worked in on several research studies, most notably on the effects of a living greenwall on students' attitudes, moods, and performance. I was able to present this research in multiple different venues. I'm currently pursuing my Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and my research focus is on coping and recovery strategies in the workforce.
My name is Ana Jacome, and I graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. During my undergraduate career, I worked in a developmental psychology laboratory that examined cross-cultural learning among children. I conducted my honors thesis on how goal-oriented versus convention-oriented instructions affect children's attention and imitation. I'm currently pursuing my Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and my research focus is on coping strategies in the workforce.
Description
There has been a great deal of research on the stress and strain that law enforcement professionals face. The majority of this research has focused on police officers. However, there are other law enforcement-related occupations that are crucial to law enforcement and support the work of police officers. One of these essential occupations is the work of communications personnel such as dispatchers and 911 operators. Researchers have yet to study this unique occupation that deals with emotionally taxing and cognitively complex work. The present study examines the relationship between personal resources and negative outcomes (psychological detachment, burnout, general psychological distress) in emergency communications personnel. Personal resources include both recovery experiences (psychological detachment, mastery, relaxation) and coping activities (problem-focused, emotion focused, and support seeking). Data was collected from a large southeastern police department via online surveys. The results indicated that personal resources (recovery experiences and coping activities) are a significant predictor of negative outcomes within this sample. Emotion focused coping was found to predict the most significant differences between participant general psychological distress, secondary traumatic stress, and disengagement scores. Personal resources were not found to significantly predict exhaustion scores. Identifying the most effective personal resources for emergency communications personnel would help improve training, provide better coping strategies and counseling resources for this law enforcement profession.
Keywords
coping, recovery, emergency communications personnel
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
First Faculty Advisor's Name
Lisa Perez
First Faculty Advisor's Department
Psychology
First Faculty Advisor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Josh, P., Miotke, A., & Jacome, A. (2018). Recovery and Coping: Evaluting the Role of Personal Resources in Police Communications Work. Presented at the 2018 Graduate Online Symposium, Mankato, MN. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/gos/2018/presentations/3/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recovery and Coping: Evaluating the Role of Personal Resources in Police Communications Work
There has been a great deal of research on the stress and strain that law enforcement professionals face. The majority of this research has focused on police officers. However, there are other law enforcement-related occupations that are crucial to law enforcement and support the work of police officers. One of these essential occupations is the work of communications personnel such as dispatchers and 911 operators. Researchers have yet to study this unique occupation that deals with emotionally taxing and cognitively complex work. The present study examines the relationship between personal resources and negative outcomes (psychological detachment, burnout, general psychological distress) in emergency communications personnel. Personal resources include both recovery experiences (psychological detachment, mastery, relaxation) and coping activities (problem-focused, emotion focused, and support seeking). Data was collected from a large southeastern police department via online surveys. The results indicated that personal resources (recovery experiences and coping activities) are a significant predictor of negative outcomes within this sample. Emotion focused coping was found to predict the most significant differences between participant general psychological distress, secondary traumatic stress, and disengagement scores. Personal resources were not found to significantly predict exhaustion scores. Identifying the most effective personal resources for emergency communications personnel would help improve training, provide better coping strategies and counseling resources for this law enforcement profession.
