NCJ Number
131831
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: (1991) Pages: 361-370
Date Published
1991
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A comparative study of police stress and teacher stress both at work and at home was conducted to determine if police officers experience greater stress than teachers and to identify patterns of stressors in each group.
Abstract
A structured questionnaire was administered to a sample population consisting of police officers, police administrators in three different communities differing in size, geographic location, and economic base. The three cities were a small northeastern bedroom community, a medium-sized southern town with a technical base, and an older urban area in a southern suburban county. Stress was measured on two scales of physiological symptoms, one for the perceived presence of job stress and the second for life stressors. The results showed that the two occupational groups differed in age, education, sex, salary, and length of time of employment in the field and in the current position. For the total sample, the relationships between job type and both perceived job stress and perceived life stress were not significant. However, police officers experienced higher levels of job stress than teachers in the city where the police department and school operations were normal. There was no difference in reported job stress between teachers and police in the city in which the police department was recognized for its excellence and in the city in which the school system was experiencing exceptional conflict between the teachers and administration. 1 table and 44 references (Author abstract modified)