Adjusting to life 'on the beat' : a longitudinal examination of adaptation to the police profession

Focus on the negative outcomes of operational trauma in policing has led to the predominant conclusion that the profession is highly stressful. However, much of this research fails to consider the role of the organisation in facilitating and maintaining employee well-being. Furthermore, it is now widely argued that individual factors (e.g., personality) have a differential impact on responses to trauma. The major aim of this project was to examine the interplay between individual and organisational factors in determining positive adjustment outcomes for new police officers. To date there is no study which has systematically examined the adjustment of police officers during their first encounters with operational policing from both an organisational, individual and trauma perspective. Accordingly, the project draws on a wide range of literature, with emphasis on a multi-faceted approach drawn from within organisational/industrial psychology, stress and trauma research, health psychology, and individual differences. In particular, theoretical frameworks regarding organisational stress, occupational health, individual differences, and trauma response are drawn upon in an attempt to fully explicate the adjustment process in new police officers. This study utilised a multi-method longitudinal approach, and followed police recruits from training and through their first 2 years of operational duties, a period of around 30 months. All new recruits to Tasmania Police in 2004 and 2005 were approached to participate. A 100% response rate (N= 161) was achieved for the first phase of the project. An overall response rate of 75% was achieved for the quantitative (survey-based) phases of the study, and 53% for the qualitative (semi-structured interview) phases. Changes in officer's stress, job satisfaction, and perceptions of organisational climate were charted using a quantitative methodology, and the implications of prior traumatic experience/s, personality, and coping in response to occupational experiences (both routine and potentially traumatising) were also explored. Further, qualitative studies examined changes in officers' perceptions of their role within the organisation, and combined results found satisfaction is determined, to a large extent, by the police organisational culture. Overall, results suggest that prior trauma may actually facilitate officer resilience to later work-trauma, and that the police organisation plays a pivotal role in determining the well-being of officers. The results also point out the negative implications of the police socialisation process, and outlines some of the ways in which high levels of camaraderie in this profession can lead to the development and facilitation of maladaptive ways of coping with the job, whilst offering protection against other mitigating factors such as isolation. The project provides important insights into the dynamics of individual adjustment in the police profession during officers' first three years of organisational involvement. The implications of these findings for the current and future psychological health of these officers, in the context of the challenges faced within a policing environment, are explored throughout the thesis.