Relationship between Personality and Occupational Stress in Police Personnel:The Moderating Effect of Coping

Occupational stress is a growing global concern which has increased dramatically during the past few decades. The deleterious effects of occupational stress are not only one of the leading concerns for individual as well as organization, but also one of the most costly occupational health issues. To deal with occupational stress personality may affect coping strategy selection directly or indirectly by constraining use of specific strategies, or by influencing the nature and severity of stressors experienced. The influence of personality on the frequency, intensity, and nature of stressors experienced may partially explain relations between personality and coping. Research shows that personality traits influence the selection of coping strategy The present study is designed to examine the relationship among the study measures and to examine the moderating effect of personality on coping and occupational stress relationship. The sample includes 72 police personnel drawn from Kurukshetra and Hisar district of Haryana. The participants were assessed with NEO-FFl, Occupational Stress Index and Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Results showed that neuroticism and extroversion was found to be correlated more strongly with some ways of coping than other dimensions of big-five factors model of personality Neuroticism was found to be associated positively with occupational stress. Extraversion, openness and conscientiousness were found to be correlated negatively with occupational stress. Occupational stress was found to have negatively significant relationship with positive reappraisal way of coping. The moderated regression analysis showed that coping moderates substantially the relationship between personality and occupational stress.