Occupational Stress in Spanish Police Officers: Validating the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire

The Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire (hereinafter, ERIQ) has been largely used worldwide to assess job stress, but it has not yet been applied in Spanish police. The objective of this study was to examine the construct validity and the internal consistency of the ERIQ in police officers. A cross-sectional study was carried out, using a nonprobability sampling (quota). A total of 217 Spanish police officers participated, 192 men (88.47%) and 25 women (11.53%). The mean age was 41 years (SD = 7.51). These police officers completed the ERIQ together with some other questionnaires (DECORE-21, MBI, GHQ and STAI) in order to provide evidence for validity based on the relationships to other constructs. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed and a matrix of correlations with the rest of constructs was created. The results showed an appropriate fit to the original model consisting of three scales. In addition, the scales of the ERIQ presented the expected relationship with the other constructs. The ERIQ is a valid instrument for assessing occupational stress in Spanish police officers and can improve the interventions in this professional group.Depto. de Psicología Social, del Trabajo y DiferencialFac. de PsicologíaTRUEpu

Evaluación de factores psicosociales en el entorno laboral

In this paper we are reviewing the main techniques to assess psychosocial factors within work context. First of all, we review what psychosocial factors stand for, specially, for those entities devoted to the protection and health of workers; further on, we explain the models from which, these risks and their relation with disease have more frequently been investigated: demand-control Model (Karasek, 1979; Karasek & Theorell, 1990) and effort-reward imbalance Model (Siegrist, 1996, 1998). To end with, we fully explain the main techniques used in work risk prevention in order to assess these factors, as well as the effort we are making from the Laboratory of Work Psychology and Security Studies of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, UCM, to create and validate a questionnaire on psychosocial factors within work context: Decore Multidimensional Questionnaire (3). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract

Psychosocial Risk Factors, Burnout and Hardy Personality as Variables Associated With Mental Health in Police Officers

Among the variables associated with occupational stress, two of the most studied are the adverse perceptions of psychosocial risk factors in the workplace and burnout. With the rise of positive psychology, other variables of the individual type, such as hardy personality have also been the subject of study. No studies have been found that jointly examine these variables related to mental health in police officers. The aim of this research was to analyze which variables were associated with mental health in police officers. A total of 223 policemen (202 men and 21 women) participated in a cross-sectional study. Of all the variables, emotional exhaustion and perception of problems as challenges were the only factors introduced in the regression model. These factors must be considered to improve both human resource interventions and occupational health practices in this professional group

Percepción de riesgos psicosociales en distintas muestras de trabajadores españoles

El objetivo de la investigación fue estudiar la exposición al riesgo psicosocial en varias muestras de trabajadores. La muestra estuvo formada por 168 empleados pertenecientes a 6 contextos laborales diferentes: Administrativos, Consultores, Periodistas, Policías Municipales, Políticos, y Militares. Se analizaron las puntuaciones medias de los trabajadores en los distintos riesgos psicosociales evaluados por el cuestionario DECORE en cada uno de los niveles de exposición al riesgo. Los trabajadores que están expuestos a un mayor riesgo psicosocial son los policías municipales, seguido de los militares. Los empleados que tienen una mejor percepción de su entorno de trabajo son los administrativo y los periodistas (los niveles de exposición al riesgo son saludables en todos los factores), seguidos por los consultores que perciben el factor Control en el nivel de alerta, y los políticos que perciben el factor Control y el índice de Desequilibrio Demanda Control en el nivel de alerta. Existen diferencias en la percepción del riesgo psicosocial en función del puesto y tipo de trabajo que se realiza. En este sentido, son los policías municipales y los militares los que tienen una percepción más adversa del riesgo psicosocial debido, en parte, a sus condiciones de trabajo, ya que su actividad habitual puede resultar perjudicial para su salud física y psicológica por la exposición al peligro y a la violencia