Abstract
Police officers are frequently confronted with various stressors that may affect their mental health. Psychological resilience may protect against these effects. For this purpose, a Mental Strength Training (MST) was developed by the Dutch Police Academy aimed at psychological resilience enhancement. The present three-wave study examined efficacy of this training using a quasi-experimental study design among police officers (NTotal = 305, nExperimenal = 138, nComparison = 167). Additionally, we compared between officers in the experimental and comparison group recently confronted with a potentially traumatic event (NTotal = 170, nExperimenal = 74, nComparison = 96). Questionnaires on resilience (Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (MTQ-48) and Resilience Scale-nl (RS-nl)), mental health disturbances (Symptoms CheckList 90-R (SCL-90-R) and Self-Rating Inventory for PTSD (SRIP)), were administered pre-training, and about 3 and 9 months post-training. Mixed-effects models showed training effects on Interpersonal Confidence. Similar analyses among officers with recent potentially traumatic event experience showed significant training effects for the RS-nl subscale of Acceptance of Self and Life, MTQ-48 total score, and the MTQ-48 subscale of Interpersonal Confidence. However, all effects yielded small effect sizes according to Cohen’s d, and are therefore of limited practical relevance. Officer’s appraisal of training benefits on resilience enhancement was largely negative. We found no indications that 4-day training substantially improved officer’s psychological resilience or mental health.
Highlights
Policing is often considered a stressful and demanding job
1 INTERVICT, Tilburg University, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands 2015; van der Velden et al 2010; Pavšič Mrevlje 2014; van der Velden et al 2013; Violanti and Aron 1993). These stressors are associated with the development of mental health disturbances (MHDs), such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, burnout, and sleep problems among police officers (Berg et al 2006; Brough 2004; Charles et al 2011; LeBlanc et al 2008; Maguen et al 2009; Mumford et al 2015; van der Velden et al 2013; Wang et al 2010)
The present study examined the effects of the Mental Strength Training (MST) training aimed at psychological resilience enhancement of Dutch police officers
Summary
Policing is often considered a stressful and demanding job. While police officers are confronted with numerous potentially traumatic events (PTEs), they are expected to maintain adequate functioning at all time. Another systematic review on resilience enhancement training for the police and other occupations, such as teachers, managers, and soldiers, by Robertson et al (2015), showed ambiguous results; both effects and non-effects within and between studies were found on a variety of outcome measures, such as psychological resilience and mental health Taken together, these reviews show that proof of resilience enhancement training for law enforcement is ambiguous in its outcomes and previously applied study designs are lacking robustness. The present study examined the effects of the MST training aimed at psychological resilience enhancement of Dutch police officers It did so while considering some of the most important issues of reviewers of police stress interventions (Peñalba et al 2008; Patterson et al 2012). We hypothesized that the trained group showed less post-training MDH as compared to a comparison group
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