TITLE:
Defining Stress among Corrections Professionals
AUTHORS:
Jessica Ballin, Meike Niederhausen, Kerry S. Kuehl, Diane L. Elliot, Wendy McGinnis, Carol De Francesco
KEYWORDS:
Perceived Stress, Corrections Professionals, Work-Related Stress, Occupational Stressors, Procedural Justice
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine,
Vol.11 No.6,
June
11,
2021
ABSTRACT: Corrections professionals experience high levels of acute and chronic work-related stress. This stress leads to increased mental and physical illness, early disability and mortality, and increased healthcare costs. Reducing stress requires identifying and prioritizing factors that contribute to it. Corrections professionals (n = 296) working at six different Oregon Department of Corrections facilities completed a cross-sectional survey, including demographics, work history and validated stress and occupational constructs. The outcome of perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4 Short Form). Using a linear mixed effects regression model, we found that perceived stress increases with increased work-related stress (p = 0.02), work hours (p = 0.03), operational stressors (p = 0.002), and lack of procedural injustice (p = 0.03) and decreases with more time employed at current facility (p = 0.06), improved job satisfaction (p