The Link Between Social Support and Psychological Vulnerability Among Canadian Police Officers

Police officers face a variety of occupational (e.g., job dissatisfaction) and operational (e.g., exposure to suffering) stressors because of their work, making them vulnerable to challenges with psychological well-being (Johnson et al. in J Manag Psycho 20(2):178-196, 2005). Social support is known to offset repercussions resulting from high stress (Hansson et al. in J Police Crim Psycho 32(2):128-137, 2017); however, limited research has documented use of social support experienced by police officers. Thus, the current study examined the nature, quality, and potential benefits of social support on officer psychological wellness, including its benefits beyond use of cognitive-emotion coping strategies. Participants included 88 Canadian police (73.9% male, M-age = 41.72, SD = 9.64) who completed measures of occupational stressors (OSI-R, Osipow and Spokane 1-15 1998), social support (OSI-R and author constructed), mental health symptoms (DSM-5 CC, APA 170(1)71-82 2013; PCL-5, Weathers et al. 2013), and cognitive-emotion coping strategies (CERQ, Garnefski et al. in J Youth Adolesc 32:401-408, 2001). Officers relied on a variety of supports in and outside of the workplace, but most frequently relied on intimate partners (85.9%) and coworkers (84.9%). Higher social support quality was significantly related to lower endorsement of depression, anxiety, anger, and PTSD symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that social support predicted lower PTSD symptom severity over and above cognitive-emotion coping strategies. Results are discussed in terms of psychological wellness initiatives and psychoeducational opportunities for police organizations to improve access to, and quality of, social supports for employees.