A Study of Occupational Stress, Burnout, Presumptive Life Events, Depression and Anxiety Among Ahmedabad City Police Officers

The Police is an active branch of the justice system responsible for maintenance of law and order. Stress in policing brings about burnout and health problems that complicate job performance, interpersonal relationships etc. The study aims to find significant differences between Ahmedabad City Police officers and subjects having other professions with respect to Occupational Stress, Burnout, Stressful Life Events, Depression and Anxiety. The sample consists of 852 subjects, divided equally into Police officers group and group of subjects having other professions. Assessment was done using Occupational Stress Index (Srivastava & Singh, 1984); Burnout Inventory (Misra, 2012); Presumptive Stressful Life Event Scale (Singh, Kaur, & Kaur, 1984) and Depression, Anxiety Stress Scales (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). The findings revealed significant differences between two groups with respect to Occupational Stress, Burnout, stressful life events, Depression and Anxiety and all of these variables were found to be more in Police officers. The study highlights that Police are vulnerable to mental health problems and need to undergo adequate intervention programme.