The role of moderating variables between stressor exposure and being distressed in a sample of serving police officers

The present paper examined police officers' (N = 594) exposure to operational duties and the possible moderating role played by just world beliefs, availability of social support and negative attitudes towards emotional expression and their likelihood of reporting symptoms as measured by the GHQ(12). Statistical differences are found in univariate analysis but interactions within an analysis of variance were for the most part not statistically significant. A multivariate procedure, partial order scalogram analysis (POSA) constructs profiles for respondents in terms of their scores across the moderating variables. This enabled examination of interactional effects, which showed differences in the role of moderators under conditions of high and low stressor exposure and revealed the most at risk officers (profiles in which officers exhibited high negative attitude towards emotional expression, low just world beliefs and low levels of social support). Implications for further analysis and counselling interventions are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.