Law enforcement personnel face occupational, administrative and reputational stressors, and the health consequences that we all face when stress goes unmanaged. As with any profession, we seek to attend to well-being in law enforcement for the sake of individuals. However, because of their mission to support public safety, officer well-being is also critically important to the communities they serve.
Using longitudinal data, we looked at officers’ reports of their perceived stress, job satisfaction, and job performance ratings (how they would rate themselves and how their supervisors rate their performance at last check in). We also examined how agency wellness programming and officers’ personal resilience might mitigate the effects of stress on job satisfaction and job performance.
Main Take-Aways
Officers’ stress was predicted lower job satisfaction a year later and self-reports of poorer job performance two years later.
Higher job satisfaction predicted better reports of job performance at the end of the following year.
Highly resilient officers (compared to those with low/moderate resilience), and officers with access to agency wellness programming (compared to those whose agencies did not offer wellness programming support), were more likely to avoid these stress-satisfaction-performance patterns.
The current study examined in a longitudinal study of 684 officers participating in the Officer Safety and Wellness (OSAW) Initiative. Structural equation models were estimated to examine direct effects and, in subsequent analyses, the moderating effects of officer resilience and agency wellness programming on both the stress-job satisfaction association and the job satisfaction-job performance association. Officers’ stress (wave 1) was negatively associated with job satisfaction (wave 2), which in turn was positively associated with job performance (wave 3). These associations remained significant among officers reporting low to moderate baseline resilience and those lacking easy access to agency-based wellness programs but dissipated among officers with high resilience and access to wellness programs. Administrators and policymakers striving to retain a high-performance police workforce may consider these results in recruiting as well as academy and in-service wellness training and program decisions.
This is the first nationally representative effort that we know of to try to measure how U.S. police officers perceive their individual job performance. This study observed 684 police officers who participated in the Officer Safety and Wellness (OSAW) initiative to explore the impact of stress on job satisfaction and whether job satisfaction influenced job performance. Through a representative and longitudinal study, the research findings validate the temporal relationship between the association of stress levels, job satisfaction, and job performance among police officers. Initiatives such as wellness programs and resilience training can support staff retention and officer performance in the U.S.
Policy implications: Investing in officer resilience training and providing wellness programs may help lessen the impact of stress on officers’ job satisfaction and subsequent job performance - a win for individuals, agencies and communities.
Project Contact
Explore the Project
The Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness (OSAW) Initiative
Suggested Citation
Mumford, E. & Liu, W. (2023, August 30). How Stress, Resilience, and Wellness Shape Job Performance for Law Enforcement. [Web blog post]. Goal: Resilience. Retrieved from https://goalresilience.norc.org.
External Links
The Nationally Representative Officer Safety and Wellness Initiative
Focus on Officer Wellness: The Officer Safety and Wellness (OSAW) Initative
Funding Sources
National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
