How Does Stress Affect Police Officers

Police officer works in one of the most dangerous and a very stressful environment, difficult circumstances are part of the profession. As an officer your duty is to protect the public. By the protecting the public you are putting yourself in harm way and you are an easy target for criminals. Police officers are usually are the first responders to serious crimes and dangerous events, and are constantly exposed to potentially traumatic situations such as pursuing armed suspect, hostage situation, accidental death of a child, shooting or taking a life in the line of duty, and witnessing violent death. The unpredictable nature of the job, being in a constant state of activation and always being on alert, and the idea an officer never knows when

Organization stress is for those by element inherit in the police subculture. One particular stress that is associate with organization stress is the particular shift assignment with an officer, specifically the night shift which is also known as the graveyard shift. This shift is usually worked by newer and younger officers to bear the brunt of night shifts. Officers working in this shift are fighting against their circadian clocks or natural sleep cycle and are at risk of developing shift work sleep

Regardless of where the stress originate it can interfere with the progression, longevity and quality of one relationship. Officers and their spouses need to understand how these job-related stresses can affect their relationship. As mentioned above, that officers tend to suppress their personal feeling and emotions. It is also common for officers to hide their true feelings at home as well, and it is also a common strategy officer use to combat work induce stress. This strategy is not effective. As a partner the bond that officers shares with their spouses are closely linked, just as stress and emotion are linked together. Based on research effort to conceal stress and emotion or suppressing one emotion for the well-being of the marriage can harm it. The evidence clearly shows that the compared to the general population, the divorce rate divorce rate for police officer is twice that of non-law enforcement officers. The divorce rate is much higher as you move up the rank. These alarming statistics indicate that there is a significant serious issue among police officer. Although there are countless possible reason other than stress that may contribute to officer high divorce rate such as lack of communication, not being present in the household, infidelity, dress may be a contributing factor as to why police officers have a high divorce