Emotional Empathy, Social Distance and Attitude of Police Officers towards People with Mental Illness

Abstract

People with mental illness are generally stigmatized. This study therefore specifically investigated the relationship between emotional empathy, social distance and attitude towards mental illness by police officers who interface with people with mental illness in the course of duty. A total of 300 police officers comprising of 148 (49.3%) males and 152 (50.7%) females were selected from the Police Training College Ikeja, Lagos State. This study adopted a cross sectional survey using purposive sampling technique. The instruments for data collection were structured psychological scales which are the multi-dimensional emotional empathy scale, social distance scale and community attitude toward mental illness scale. Data collected were analysed using multiple regression and independent t test. The result indicated that emotional empathy and its dimensions (suffering, positive sharing, responsive crying, emotional attention, feel for others, emotional contagion) and social distance had significant joint influence on attitude towards people with mental illness [F (7,292) = 2.85, P < .01)]. However, emotional empathy (β = .58, t = 2.46, P < 0.01), positive sharing (β = -.52, t = -3.84, P < 0.01) and responsive crying (β = -.15, t = -2.06, P < 0.05) had significant independent influence on attitude towards people with mental illness. Also, male police officers exhibit more sympathetic attitude towards people with mental illness than female police officers {t (298) = -1.778, P < 0.05}. Recommendation is made for psychological intervention to police officers for zero stigmatisation tolerance, and training on emphatic altruism and concern.