EXPERIENCE OF STRESS AND COPING MECHANISM AMONG POLICE OFFICERS IN IBADAN METROPOLIS, OYO STATE.

Abstract

Policing is considered one of the most stressful occupations which expose police officers to occupational, organizational, and personal stressors. This is true in a country like Nigeria with increased profiling of crime and peace-threatening activities, like kidnapping, ethnic crisis, armed robbery, religious crisis, extra- judicial killing, political violence, and, of recent, the Boko Haram saga.The stressful conditions that law enforcement officers are exposed to can affect their work-related and physiological well-being. The studies conducted in Nigeria have not assessed the knowledge of stress and coping mechanism among police officers.Therefore, this study assessed stress experienced and coping mechanism among police officers in Ibadan metropolis. This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study which utilized quantitative method of data collection using a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. A multi stage sampling technique was used to select 342 respondents; one out of five Local Government in Ibadan metropolis, the police Divisional Headquarters and five police stations in Ibadan North Local Government Area. Questionnaires items elicited information on knowledge of stress and coping mechanism, prevalence of stress and coping mechanism of stress among police officers. Knowledge was scored on a 13-point scale; scores of ≤ 6, ≥7 -10 and ≥11-13 were classified as poor, fair and good knowledge respectively and coping mechanism was scored on a 15 points scale; scores of 0-5, 6-10 and >10 were classified as good, fair and poor coping mechanism. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and Fishers exact test at p=0.05. The mean age of respondents was 42.1±14.4 years. Many (58.1%) of the respondents were males, less than half (40.6%) of the respondents were within the age of 33 and 44 years and majority (73.2%) of the respondents were of the Yoruba tribe.Majority (92.5%) of the respondents had poor knowledge of stress with a mean knowledge score of 5.4±1.7 and mean coping score of 5.0±3.0. Many (93.4%) reported prevalence of stress, more than half (53.1%) of the respondents stated that they are sometimes uncomfortable with their weekly shifts rotation.Most (93.8%) of the respondents stated that their coping techniques were effective and good because it works best for them and make them healthy, while 6.2% of the respondents said their coping techniques were not effective because they still perceive the symptoms of stress. This study showed that knowledge of stress was poor and respondents still perceived that they experienced stress and its symptoms. Strategies such as training using teaching, discussion and explanation to educate the police officers about stress and its coping mechanism and advocacy to facilitate the construction of standard stress management centres would be appropriate strategies to reduce stress and to increase the knowledge of police officers on stressors and its coping mechanism.