Demographic Variables As Moderators of Work Stress Among the Nigeria Police Officers

Abstract

Research on the issue of Police Officers’ stress has been extensive and two main categories of stressors have been identified-operational stressors and organizational stressors. These two categories were investigated in this study in addition to what demographic and personal variables may moderate actual levels of stress experienced by Police Officers in Nigeria. To do this, a sample of 1000(one thousand) Police Officers serving in Edo State was surveyed. The study found that demographic and personal variables like marital status, level of physical exercise, use of alcohol, age, rank, and satisfaction with the job do not moderate the levels of operational and organizational stress experienced by Police Officers. On the other hand, operational stress was moderated by years of service, satisfaction with leadership style, educational level and having children. While in terms of organizational stress, the study found that gender, years of service, main tasks satisfaction with leadership style, educational level and having children were all moderators. Lastly, the study found that there is a significant relationship between the presence of health problems and operational stress in Police Officers. The same finding was reached for organizational stress.