The Potentially Traumatic Event and the Psychological Health at Work of the Police; A Perception of a Unique Impact?

Andrée-Ann Deschênes^1, , Geneviève St-Hilaire², Emmanuelle Crête², Christine Desjardins³ and Clémence Emeriau Farges³

¹Université du Québec à Rimouski, Campus de Rimouski, 300, allée des Ursulines, C.P. 3300, succ. A Rimouski (Québec) Canada

²Sûreté du Québec, Grand quartier general, 1701 rue Parthenais, H2K 3S7, Montréal (Québec) Canada

³Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 boul. Des Forges, G8Z 4M3, Trois-Rivières (Québec) Canada

Cite this paper:
Andrée-Ann Deschênes, Geneviève St-Hilaire, Emmanuelle Crête, Christine Desjardins and Clémence Emeriau Farges. The Potentially Traumatic Event and the Psychological Health at Work of the Police; A Perception of a Unique Impact?. American Journal of Applied Psychology. 2019; 7(1):30-35. doi: 10.12691/ajap-7-1-4

Abstract

It is recognized that the nature of the police profession makes him more likely to experience a traumatic event that can have significant repercussions both personally and professionally [1]. Several studies define and evaluate the nature of the event with potentially traumatic content or are interested in the intervention methods to be recommended when post-traumatic symptoms are present. However, to our knowledge, no study indicates the impact of a potentially traumatic event experienced by a police officer on his psychological health at work. The study wants to evaluate the link between these two variables. The theoretical model of Gilbert et al. [2] was used to define the dependent variable composed of psychological well-being (serenity, commitment and social harmony) and psychological distress (anxiety, disengagement and irritability). Josse's definition [3] is used to understand the potentially traumatic event. The participants are made up of 240 women and 681 men aged between 35 and 44 years old. The scale of Gilbert et al. [2] measures psychological well-being (α =, 91) and DET (α =, 94). In addition, participants had to tick if they had experienced a potentially traumatic event in their professional lives. An ex-post facto quote was used. A first group of police (n = 492) identified having experienced a potentially traumatic event while the second group of police officers (n = 490) identified that they had not experienced a potentially traumatic event as part of their job. The results support a significant difference between the two groups on the dimensions of well-being (commitment, t (980) = -2.04, p <0.05, serenity, t (980) = -2.39, p < 0.05) and distress (irritability t (980) = 3.45, p <0.001, anxiety t (980) = 5.05, p <0.001 and disengagement t (980) = 5.31, p <0.001).

Keywords:
potentially traumatic event psychological health at work well-being at work distress at work police officer

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