Depression Symptoms in Police
For years mental illness has always been a negative stigma. People would rather do nothing about their illness then ask for help. Luckily in the past 15 years the stigma is beginning to be removed and our country is beginning to help our troops returning from war with PTSD. Unfortunately often times we forget that police work can at times be very mentally trying. With long hours and dangerous situations we have to find a way to care for the ones protecting us at home. The follow study was done to help find predictors of depression symptoms in police service. By finding the outline problems maybe we can find solutions to avoiding the problems.
Police work is often regarded as one of the most stressful jobs in our society. The purpose of this research study was to examine predictors of depression symptoms in police service. The study was done using a prospective longitudinal design. The hypothesis of the study was “that greater exposure to childhood trauma, higher neuroticism and lower appraisals of self-worth assessed during academy training, and higher levels of critical incident exposure, negative life events and routine work environment stress during the first year of police service would predict greater levels of depression symptoms after the first year of police service” (Wang, 2010). Participants of this study comprised on 119 healthy police recruits who were recruited during police academy training from four urban police departments (New York, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose). (Wang, 2010) The trainees were referred to the study by research team personnel during academy training classes. “Participants were evaluated at baseline, which occurred while they were in training at the police academy, and 12 months after the inception of police service. Study procedures were described in detail and written informed consent was obtained. At each time point, a structured clinical interview was conducted by doctoral level clinicians and participants completed self-report questionnaires. All procedures were approved by the University of California Human Subjects Committee and Institutional Review Board, and a Federal Certificate of Confidentiality was obtained” (Wang, 2010). An initial assessment was done, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID NP), to determine if past or present anxiety, mood and substance abuse disorders where present in the participants. Age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, and education levels were also requested.
One of the operational definitions used by the researchers was the “Early trauma Inventory Self report”. This form was used to set the variable to determine if childhood trauma had occurred before the age of 18. Throughout the study a total of 10 different scales based forms were used to determine different variables from work stress, PTSD symptoms and other factors that cause depression.
One example of inductive logic from the results was that the assumption that baseline depression, neuroticism, negative life events and critical incidents exposure were going to be significant predicators turned out to be false. An example of deductive logic would be the conclusion that “greater childhood trauma exposure, greater neuroticism and lower levels of perceived self-worth during academy training, and greater negative life events and greater perceived work stress in the first year of police service were associated with greater levels of current depression symptoms” turned out to be true (Wang, 2010).
Since all the data is concerned with statistical methods we know that quantitative data was used in this study. All of the 10 questionnaires were scale based using a five point Likert scale which allowed for data analysis of the results. Also at each set time point the participants were given a structured clinical interview conducted by doctoral level clinicians.
The methodology used was a prospective longitudinal design. A prospective longitudinal design entails collecting data on several different occasions. (Hagan, 2010) As mentioned earlier, participants of this study comprised on 119 healthy police recruits who were recruited during police academy training from four urban police departments (New York, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose). (Wang, 2010) The trainees were referred to the study by research team personnel during academy training classes.

Correlation Analyses The results from the correlation analyses where that “greater childhood trauma exposure, greater neuroticism and lower levels of perceived self-worth during academy training, and greater negative life events and greater perceived work stress in the first year of police service were associated with greater levels of current depression symptoms. The association of cumulative critical incident exposure during the first year of police service with depression symptoms at 12 months of service was not significant” (Wang, 2010).

Hierarchical Linear Regression Analyses The results from the hierarchical linear regression analyses were that “one control variable, current PTSD symptoms, and three predictor variables (greater childhood trauma, lower self-worth during training and greater perceived work stress in the first year of police service) had significant beta weights in the final model. Baseline depression, neuroticism, negative life events and critical incidents exposure were not significant predictors in the final model” (Wang, 2010).
The author came to the conclusion that after one year of police service “depression symptoms were partly independent from PTSD symptoms and predicted by greater childhood trauma, lower perceived self-worth and greater perceived work stress” (Wang, 2010). Wang recommend that the screening of childhood trauma and self-worth of all police trainees prior to graduation would help identify the cadets whom are more vulnerable to depression. Once these cadets are identified the implication of resilience-building interventions would benefit the cadet. Wang also concluded that “attention to routine work stress management during police service, including building unit cohesion by resolving conflicts, providing reliable equipment, limiting overtime shifts, fostering community relations, and eliminating prejudice in a diverse work force, holds promise for protecting against the development of depression” (Wang, 2010).
In my opinion the case study was well done. One thing I would have added would have been some open ended questions in the form of an unstructured interview. Since both quantitative and qualitative methods have their pros and cons the using of both techniques is often considered a better approach. While quantitative data is always helpful getting answers from an unstructured interview could further shed some light on what is causing the difficulties for the police officers. Some examples of the unstructured interview questions:
1. Who are the people you feel close to emotionally? Do you spend time with them or do you prefer to be alone?
2. Do you ever feel hopeless, like you are living in a black hole and the darkness is heavy or never-ending?
3. Do you generally feel tired most of the day or do you have enough energy?
4. When was the last time you felt happy and life just felt good? Do you generally feel happy, frustrated, angry, stressed, worried or sad?
5. Any changes in how you focus or concentrate? Are you able to finish tasks?
6. With everything that is going on, how are you sleeping? Do you find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep? Do you wake up too early?
These open-ended questions will allow us to determine if the officer is suffering from depression. Instead of getting yes or no answers having open-ended questions allow the researcher a wider view of how the officer is feeling, if the officer has a good quality of life, and any other related risk factors of mental illness. References
Hagan, F. E. (2010). Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wang, Z. (2010, February 28). A prospective study of predictors of depression symptoms in police. Psychiatry Research, 175(3), 211-216. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.11.010