From stress to wellbeing: integrating occupational justice, positive psychology, and social constructionist perspectives in police officer resilience

Abstract

Policing is considered to be one of the most stressful occupations because police officers are repeatedly exposed to operational stressors in the form of unpredictable, dangerous or traumatic situations. Accordingly, they are categorised in the 'high-risk' category in terms of experiencing burnout, sickness, and work absences. Officers suffering from stress are more likely to differentially police citizens, overuse force during engagement, experience personal health issues, have strained relationships with colleagues and family members, disengage from work, and resign from the organisation. The stress experienced by officers can influence the whole police organisation, frequently leading to resource limitations and staffing shortages, with broad social consequences. This occurs because the nature of police work requires consistent, highly visible, professional interaction with communities, which is likely to diminish when officers become stressed due to work.

How officers cope with stress and high-risk work, however, is affected by several factors. This includes an officer's individual resilience to stress and stressful situations, the coping strategies or mechanisms they utilise to manage stress, and the occupational support frameworks that are in place to assist officers. In policing, resilience to occupational stress and wellbeing are fundamentally related because resilience can refer to the ability of an officer to resist physical, mental or emotional injury, whilst also referring to the ability of an officer to recover readily from an incident which may have caused (or could cause) an injury and regain wellbeing. Accordingly, resilience to occupational stress is often measured using wellbeing instruments, with higher levels of wellbeing identified being an antecedent or precursor to resilience when experiencing stress.

The findings of this study reframe the understanding of workplace stress and challenge long-held assumptions regarding the causes and effects of occupational stress, thereby necessitating a paradigm shift in the outcomes of stress in professional settings. This PhD study suggests that there is a significant and inextricable link between the meaning officers perceive in relation to work and work-related practices, the participation they have in occupational settings, the experiences they have in differing policing contexts, the interpersonal relationships they have with colleagues, and how these occupational influences shape their perceptions of resilience and wellbeing. The interplay of these occupational elements is key to understanding and addressing knowledge deficits regarding how occupational justice in policing practices affects police officer wellbeing and resilience to occupational stress.

Date of Thesis submission	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Toby Miles-Johnson (Supervisor) & Kate Linklater (Supervisor)