On being mindful, emotionally aware, and more resilient : longitudinal pilot study of police recruits

Police ofï¬cers are at particular risk of stress when compared to people in other occupational groups. A compounding factor is that police are prone to the use of avoidant coping strategies when attempting to deal with this stress. Evidence suggests that 'anti-avoidance' strategies, of acceptance, mindfulness and emotional awareness, are more effective ways of coping, and are linked to both mental health and personal effectiveness. This study followed 60 trainee police ofï¬cers from the recruit phase into the workplace to determine if these processes predicted more positive mental health and wellbeing in police recruits after 1 year of service. Mindfulness predicted depression at follow-up, while emotion identiï¬cation skill predicted general mental health. These results suggest that police ofï¬cers and police organisations may beneï¬t from interventions aimed at developing and promoting mindfulness and emotion identiï¬cation.