Health in police officers: Role of risk factor clusters and police divisions.

International audienceLaw enforcement is a stressful occupation associated with significant health problems. To date, most studies have focused on one specific factor or one domain of risk factors (e.g., organizational, personal). However, it is more likely that specific combinations of risk factors are differentially health relevant and further, depend on the area of police work. A self-selected group of officers from the criminal, community, and emergency division (N = 84) of a Swiss state police department answered questionnaires assessing personal and organizational risk factors as well as mental and physical health indicators. In general, few differences were observed across divisions in terms of risk factors or health indicators. Cluster analysis of all risk factors established a high-risk and a low-risk cluster with significant links to all mental health outcomes. Risk cluster-by-division interactions revealed that, in the high-risk cluster, Emergency officers reported fewer physical symptoms, while community officers reported more posttraumatic stress symptoms. Criminal officers in the high-risk cluster tended to perceived more stress. Finally, perceived stress did not mediate the relationship between risk clusters and posttraumatic stress symptoms. In summary, our results support the notion that police officers are a heterogeneous population in terms of processes linking risk factors and health indicators. This heterogeneity thereby appeared to be more dependent on personal factors and individuals' perception of their own work conditions than division-specific work environments. Our findings further suggest that stress-reduction interventions that do not target job-relevant sources of stress may only show limited effectiveness in reducing health risks associated with police work

Maternal Representations and Parenting Style in Children Born With and Without an Orofacial Cleft

Objective: To investigate the evolution of maternal representations (ie, the way parents perceive their child in term of temperament, character, behaviors, etc) of children with a cleft at 3 major milestones: before/after reconstructive surgeries and at school age. Parenting style was also analyzed and compared with parents of children born without a cleft. Design and participants: The sample was composed of 30 mothers of children with an orofacial cleft and 14 mothers of children without a cleft. Maternal representations were assessed when the child was 2 months (before surgery), 12 months (after surgery), and 5 years of age (when starting school) using semistructured interviews that were transcribed and coded according to the subscales of the Working Model of the Child Interview and the Parental Development Interview. At the 5-year appointment, mothers also completed a questionnaire about parenting style. Results: Results showed no difference across groups (cleft/noncleft) in maternal representations at the 2-month, 12-month, and 5-year assessments. In the cleft group, significant differences were shown between 2 and 12 months in caregiving sensitivity, perceived infant difficulty, fear for the infant's safety, and parental pride, all factors being higher at 12 months. Those differences in parental representations over time were not found in the noncleft group. Additionally, mothers of the cleft group were significantly more authoritarian than mothers of children without a cleft. Conclusion: The absence of differences across cleft and noncleft groups suggests that having a child with a cleft does not affect maternal representations and emotions between 2 months and 5 years of the child's age. However, parenting style seems to be influenced by the presence of a cleft in the present sample

Gender Differences in the Relationship between Strain, Negative Emotions and Delinquent Behaviors in Institutionalized Juveniles

The aim of the current study was to examine the influence of strain, anger-irritability problems and depressed-anxious symptoms on delinquent behavior problems as well as the moderating effect of depressed-anxious symptoms on the relationship between anger-irritability problems and delinquent behaviors in a sample of 248 institutionalized boys and 128 girls. Results showed that both strain and anger-irritability problems were independently related to delinquent behavior problems in boys and in girls. Depressed-anxious symptoms were related to delinquent behavior problems in girls only, and they did not moderate the relationship between anger anxiety problems and delinquent behavior problems. The model explained two times more variance (42% in girls; 19% in boys) of the delinquent behavior problems in girls than in boys, thus suggesting that a higher level of negative emotions seem to play a larger part in girls' offending behavior than in boys'