What makes a happy cop? : longitudinal predictors of police officer well-being

There is a predominant belief within both scientific and lay populations that policing is a stressful occupation, by virtue of officers’ exposure to stressful and traumatic events. However, much of the research conducted with police personnel fails to consider the role of the organisation in facilitating and maintaining employee well-being. Furthermore, it is now widely argued that individual factors (e.g., personality) have a differential impact on responses to stressful and traumatising events. This paper presents an overview of changes in stress and coping as officers move from recruits to the completion of their probation (a period of 20 months), and is a small portion of data from a multi-method longitudinal study of police officer well-being. In the larger study changes in stress and satisfaction were charted and the implications of prior traumatic experience/s, personalityand coping in response to occupational experiences were examined.