Brooke McQuerrey Tuttle, Yeokil Cho, Tia C. Waldrop
{"title":"Pre-career exposure to violence as a predictor of emotional distress among police recruits","authors":"Brooke McQuerrey Tuttle, Yeokil Cho, Tia C. Waldrop","doi":"10.1177/0032258X211064712","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The occupational risks to police mental health are widely known; however, less is known about how early life experiences and pre-academy stressors influence the emotional wellness of recruits in an academy setting. The present study investigated the links between pre-career exposure to violence and emotional wellness among a sample of 1,072 police recruits. Results of path analyses revealed that direct exposure to physical violence prior to age 18 was a significant factor for recruit emotional distress, whereas indirect exposure to violence did not significantly predict emotional distress. Findings carry implications for considering a lifespan approach to understanding police stress.","PeriodicalId":87373,"journal":{"name":"The police journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The police journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X211064712","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The occupational risks to police mental health are widely known; however, less is known about how early life experiences and pre-academy stressors influence the emotional wellness of recruits in an academy setting. The present study investigated the links between pre-career exposure to violence and emotional wellness among a sample of 1,072 police recruits. Results of path analyses revealed that direct exposure to physical violence prior to age 18 was a significant factor for recruit emotional distress, whereas indirect exposure to violence did not significantly predict emotional distress. Findings carry implications for considering a lifespan approach to understanding police stress.