Impact of job demands on police stress response—the roles of basic psychological needs and job autonomy

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 1 - 2275
• Main Authors: Chen, Pei-feng, Wu, Lin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 05.12.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Autonomy; Basic psychological needs; Burn out (Psychology); Burnout; Causes of; Criminal investigations; Employees; Health aspects; Hypotheses; Job autonomy; Job demands; Job stress; Law enforcement; Mental health; Occupational health; Occupational stress; Occupations; Physiology; Police; Police officers; Prevention; Psychological aspects; Public health; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Risk factors; Security; Social aspects; Statistical analysis; Stress; Stress response; Traffic police; Variables; China
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-14758-6

Abstract Background Police officers are a high-stress group with special job characteristics, and the Chinese police management system places particularly high demands on police officers. Whether the influence of job demands on officers’ job burnout can be deduced to general stress response needs to be verified. Based on the JD-R model, the study aims to explore the impact of job demands on police stress response, whether job autonomy as a job resource has a moderating effect, and whether basic psychological needs mediate this effect. Methods A total of 251 police officers in a district-level public security bureau of China, were surveyed using Chinese-language versions of the Job Demands Scale, the Stress Response Scale, the Job Autonomy Scale, and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale. The mediating effect of basic psychological needs and the moderating effect of job autonomy were tested by regression analysis and bootstrap test. Results Job demands increase police officers’ stress response, and job autonomy does not play a buffer role but enhances this impact, and job demands can partially reduce the police stress response through the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, that is, there is a masking effect of basic psychological needs. Conclusions Adjusting and optimizing the ratio of job demands and autonomy in police work to provide high guidance under high demands is of great value to reduce the negative stress responses among police officers.