Operational Stress, Psychological Capital and Professional Quality of Life among Police Personnels

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between operational stress, psychological capital, and professional quality of life among police personnel. It was hypothesized that there is likely to be a relationship between operational stress, psychological capital, and the professional quality of life. It was hypothesized that there is likely to be a relationship between demographic variables and professional quality of life. It was also hypothesized likely to predict the role of operational stress, psychological capital for professional quality of life. Cross sectional research design was used. A sample of N=300 participants, including females n=18 and males n=282, aged 22-60, was collected from various regions, including Peshawar, Islamabad, and Gujranwala. Operational police stress questionnaire (PSQ-Op) (McCreary & Thompson, 2006), psychological capital questionnaire-PCQ-12 (Luthans et al., 2007), and professional quality of life scale (ProQOL) (Stamm et al., 2012) were used for assessment. The results of the Pearson product moment correlationrevealed that operational stress showed significant positive correlations with psychological capital and its subscales (efficacy, resilience, optimism) whereas it was negatively significantly correlated with professional quality of life and its subscales (secondary traumatic stress, burnout). Furthermore, psychological capital and its subscale (hope, efficacy, optimism) were found to be significantly positively correlated with professional quality of life and compassion satisfaction whereas they were significantly negatively correlated with burnout. Resilience was found to be negatively significantly correlated with secondary traumatic stress whereas it was found to be positively correlated with compassion satisfaction. The results of the hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis revealed that psychological capital was significant positive predictors of professional quality of life while operational stress was found to be a negative predictor of professional quality of life. It will be especially useful for law enforcement organizations to devise intervention programs which will help enhance ProQOL by promoting positive characteristics such as hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism.