Psychometric Properties of the Serbian Version of the Operational and Organizational Police Stress Questionnaires

Filip Kukić,Dane Subošić,Gianpiero Greco,Katie M Heinrich,Nenad Koropanovski

doi:10.3390/su132413662

Abstract

The Police Operational Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op) and Police Organizational Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Org) have been used to assess operational and organizational sources of police officers’ occupational stress. Considering that different cultural and socio-economic environments could affect officers’ perception of operational and organizational stress, country specific psychometric properties and cut-off values should be defined. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the PSQ-Op and PSQ-Org (i.e., translated in Serbian and adjusted to Serbian culture) and to establish cut-off values for low, moderate and high stress. Methods: The PSQ-Op and PSQ-Org were administered to police officers through the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia. Participants included 1220 police officers (19.0% female) who correctly completed both questionnaires. Cronbach’s α was used to determine the reliability of instruments. Cut-off values for low, moderate and high stress were defined based on the mean and standard deviation of the sample and using percentile analysis. Prevalence of low, moderate and high stress was calculated according to already established cut-off values as well as those calculated based on the study sample. Results: Both instruments showed high reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.963 [95% Confidence Interval = 0.957–0.964]). Occupational stress levels (low, moderate and high) were distributed differently (p < 0.001) when categorized according to the cut-off values defined in literature and cut-off values based on the study sample. The cut-off values by mean and standard deviation could be used for PSQ-Op, while cut-off values by percentile analysis could be used for PSQ-Org.

Highlights

Policing is one of the main pillars of a stable society that ensures the implementation of law and order, and provides safety and security for all citizens
These results allowed for the calculation of national standards for the evaluation of operational and organizational police stress. This was further confirmed by significant differences in the distribution of validation analysis showed that the Serbian version of PSQ-op and PSQ-org provided a high validity construct for evaluation of occupational stress
This was further confirmed by significant differences in the distribution of officers when evaluated based on sample characteristics or on previously established data, providing construct validity to the Serbian version of the PSQ-Op and PSQ-Org

Summary

Introduction

Policing is one of the main pillars of a stable society that ensures the implementation of law and order, and provides safety and security for all citizens. To play their role effectively, police officers need to perform a wide range of tasks, following precisely defined procedures and within a well-defined organizational structure [1]. Officers are often exposed to life-threatening job tasks, disagreements with colleagues and critiques by superior officers and the public. It is a stressful profession as sources of stress are originating from work content as well as the organizational job environment [2,3]. Social-related stressor such as the difficulty of finding friends outside the job, not having time to spend

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Conclusion