Predictors of health status in police officers

The purpose of the study was to establish which factors related to work stress, personal resources and coping strategies are predictors of health status in various groups of policemen. 437 police officers participated in the study The mean age was 35.15 (SD = 6.76), the mean working time was 7.68 (SD = 5.56), the total working time was 13.73 (SD = 7.29). Following methods were used in the study: General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28 prepared by Goldberg) The Subjective Work Evaluation Questionnaire (B. Dudek et al.) Rosenberg’s Self Evaluation Scale Generalized Self Efficacy Scale (R. Schwarzer et al.) Life Orientation Questionnaire (A. Antonovsky) Life Orientation Test (M. Scheier et. al.) The Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced – COPE (Ch. S. Carver et al.) Predictors of health status in examined group of policemen appeared 4 factors related to work stress: sense of work overload, unpleasant work conditions, social relations and lack of control, 3 personal resources: sense of coherence – meaningfulness, optimism and sense of self-efficacy, 3 coping strategies: using alcohol/drugs, concentration on emotions and denial