A Study of Stress, Coping, Social Support, and Mental Health in Police Personnel of Uttar Pradesh

BACKGROUND: Presence of enormous stress gives birth to a higher prevalence of mental health difficulties. Globally, the job of police personnel is full of stress. Coping strategies and social support have a crucial role to play in the management of stress and mental health. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to study stress, social support, coping, and mental health in the police personnel of Uttar Pradesh. METHODOLOGY: The sample comprised 300 male police personnel including 100 constables, 100 inspectors, and 100 officers being incidentally selected from six districts of Uttar Pradesh viz. Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Raibareilly, Ghazipur, and Noida. The mean age of the sample was 40 years and average experience of 15 years of police service. They were assessed by using Occupational Stress Questionnaire (OSQ, Gmelch and Chan, 1994), Brief COPE Scale (Carver, 1997), Social Support Scale (Cohen et al. 1985), and Mental Health Inventory (Jagdish and Srivastava, 1983). The results obtained were analyzed statistically, the mean score was calculated, and the independent t-test was applied. RESULTS: Among the police personnel, inspectors scored highest mean occupational stress score (39.89 ± 13.17) with the lowest mean score of active coping (17.40 ± 7.37), adaptive coping (23.81 ± 8.59), and the highest mean score in maladaptive coping (21.43 ± 7.89). Mental health of inspectors was most adversely affected with highest mean score (97.81 ± 24.49). CONCLUSION: The study concludes that the amount of stress experienced by all echelons of police is extremely high and almost of similar level except for inspectors showing highest among the three groups, thus emphasizing the use of healthy coping mechanisms and modification in work environment promoting health and well-being.