Post-traumatic effects in policing: perceptions, stigmas and help seeking behaviours

Abstract

This study explored the relationships between perceptions, stigmas and support with help seeking amongst police officers. A total of 421 web surveys were completed by constables from a large municipal police force in Canada. The most significant finding was the relationship between officers feeling comfortable disclosing distressing personal information and seeking help from others. Help was most commonly sought from respondents’ friends (at work and outside) and family members. Respondents shared information with their direct supervisors only when there was a strong, reciprocal relationship between them. Implications for future research and practice for help seeking in police occupations are discussed.

Keywords:

• stress
• traumatic events
• help seeking
• perceptions
• stigmas
• health

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Superintendent Brian Adams for comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

Notes

1. When dealing with univariate outliers, the two most common options are to delete the case or to recode the value to the next highest value that is not considered an outlier. The second option was chosen here due to the small number of outliers and the goal of retaining as much of the data as possible.