Stress management training and development programs for police officers and recruits

Background and objective of this review (briefly describe the problem and the intervention): A body of knowledge exists that identifies sources of police stress, categories of stress, and the strategies officers and recruits use to cope with stress. It is generally agreed upon that stressful work and life events can have a negative impact on police officers and recruits that can be quite pervasive. Consequently, law enforcement organizations provide a wide variety of interventions to help officers manage stress. The most common intervention is training to help officers recognize the warning signs of stress, and to use individual coping strategies. However, little is known about the efficacy of the wide range of interventions given to police officers and recruits. The objectives of this systematic review are to: assess how stress management and officer development programs are evaluated; examine conceptual differences in interventions; explain variations in interventions; build the connection between the body of knowledge that describes sources and types of police and recruit stress, and interventions; discover reasons for conflicting training effects; and synthesize what is known and not known about the impact of different study designs, research methods, interventions, and data analysis procedures on outcomes.

Other

English

George T. Patterson
Irene Chung

Patterson, G. T., & Chung, I. ([2010]). Stress management training and development programs for police officers and recruits. Oslo, Norway: The Campbell Collaboration. Retrieved from www.campbellcollaboration.org on 2/10/2012