Organizational climate, work stress, and depressive symptoms among probation and parole officers

Abstract

While work environment and stress are important factors for mental health, no studies have assessed whether these factors contribute independently to the psychological well-being of probation and parole officers (PPOs). Using statewide survey data from 825 PPOs, we examine the association between depressive symptoms, work stress, and work environment (using the organizational climate measures of role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload and emotional exhaustion/burnout). Findings indicate that organizational climate and work stress are important predictors of emotional exhaustion/burnout, and that these factors have both indirect and independent associations with depressive symptomotology. Together, models including organizational climate and work stress account for two-thirds of the variability in burnout. Moreover, models incorporating exhaustion/burnout, work stress, and organizational climate account for nearly half of the variability in depressive symptoms. Organization climate measures and work stress contribute to depressive symptoms through their effect on emotional exhaustion/burnout. In addition, emotional exhaustion/burnout, role conflict, and work stress are all directly linked to levels of depressive symptoms. This study demonstrates that organizational climate and work stress contribute substantially to the well-being of PPOs and reveals the potential mental health consequences of working in community corrections.

Keywords:

• probation officers
• parole officers
• stress
• depression

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to give special thanks to the North Carolina Department of Corrections and all North Carolina community corrections officers for participating in this study.

Notes

1. This study was reviewed by an Institutional Review Board at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which determined that the study did not constitute human subjects research as defined under federal regulations [45 CFR 46.102 (d or f) and 21 CFR 56.102(c) (e)(l)] and did not require IRB approval.

2. Because some of the independent variables were highly correlated, a VIF test in STATA was used to test for multicollinearity problems in the multivariate regression analysis. However, no violations of multicollinearity were detected (VIF rnages from 1.05 to 3.03, mean 1.72). Furthermore (and predictably), supplemental models using centered measures did not differ with regard to effect direction and significance. Because emotional exhaustion may be considered a proxy for depressive mood, supplemental analysis re-estimated the model excluding emotional exhaustion (available upon request). Findings reveal that even without emotional exhaustion, all coefficients were substantively identical to those presented and the model still explains substantial variability in depressive symptoms (R ² = .41).