The World Health Organization has declared work-related stress as one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century [1]. Previous research has identified high levels of chronic stress among corrections professionals [2] [3]. These high levels of chronic stress negatively impact mental well-being, physical health and job performance [4] [5]. Compared to other occupations, corrections professionals experience some of the highest rates of depression, suicide, obesity, sleep disorders, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]. Further, this occupation is associated with high rates of injury, sick leave and healthcare costs [11].

Corrections professionals have a critical role in inmate rehabilitation, operating secure prisons and protecting our communities. Accordingly, maintaining the well-being of this largely unseen workforce is critical for public safety. Designing effective stress reduction interventions requires identifying and prioritizing the factors contributing to corrections professionals’ stress.

Previous research from the U.S. Department of Justice has suggested that sources of stress for corrections professionals include hypervigilance, constant threats of violence, media scrutiny, a closed work environment, understaffing, and organizational issues as well as work and family conflicts [12]. On the other hand, some researchers have suggested other work-related factors’ contribution to stress, such as dangers related to Adults in Custody (AIC’s), long work hours, and lack of administrative support [13] [14]. No previous studies have concurrently indexed the effect of different work factors on corrections professionals’ stress levels.

The main objective of this study was to define a comprehensive cross-sectional model for stress among corrections professionals by determining which occupational constructs, demographics, and work history variables contribute most to stress.

Participation varied across the six facilities and averaged 34%, with a total of 330 surveys collected. Thirty-four participants were excluded from analysis due to missing information for perceived stress, occupational constructs, demographics, or work history (n = 296). However, no more than 1.5% were missing for any one variable.

Demographic, work history characteristics, and perceived stress among the final sample (n = 296) are described in Table 1. Participants were mostly middle

a. Percentages add up to more than 100% since participants were asked to select all that applied.

aged (43.6 ± 11.6 years) and the distribution of gender (36.5% female) matches that of Oregon corrections as a whole, which employs about 30% females. A large percentage of the final sample is non-Hispanic white, which is consistent with the demographics of Oregon. For final analyses, race was dichotomized as Non-Hispanic white (n = 235, 79.4%) versus other (n = 61, 20.6%), including non-white, Hispanic, or more than one race. The highest level of education for most is a high school diploma, General Educational Development (GED), or some college compared to a two-year Associate’s degree or more. Further, 70.3% of participants are married or otherwise partnered and 24.3% served active duty in the military. The average time worked at participants current correctional facility was 7.78 ± 6.58 years, ranging from one month (0.08 years) to 29.3 years. The highest percentage of the sample primarily worked with medium security AIC’s in the past month (43.9%). In addition, the majority of primality worked in non-housing (40.5%) or general population unit posts (42.9%) and day shift (58.8%) in the past month. Participants worked an average of 44.4 ± 7.78 hours per week, ranging from 10 to 80 hours. The average perceived stress score (PSS-4 Short Form) (15) was 9.33 ± 2.71, ranging from a minimum score of four to a maximum score of 18, and slightly skewed to the right (Figure 1).

Prior to use in the regression model, the consistency of the occupational constructs was determined using Cronbach’s alpha (α) to ensure inter-reliability (α > 0.70) using IBM SPSS Statistics 25. Each of these occupational constructs maintained inter-reliability among the sample (Cronbach’s α > 0.74).

Unadjusted regressions with perceived stress as the outcome (Table 2) found insignificant associations with gender (p = 0.84), AIC’s security level (p = 0.39), shift (p = 0.36), years employed at current facility (p = 0.31). Measures significantly associated with perceived stress (using α = 0.25) were work-related stress, work overload, environmental safety/dangerousness, possibility of AIC conflict, organizational stressors, operational stressors, resource insufficiency, procedural justice, organizational support, supervisor support, co-worker support, job satisfaction, intentions to quit, public image, age (all p < 0.001), experience violence (p = 0.01), relationship status (p = 0.02), work hours (p = 0.02), witnessed

Note: Estimates are coefficients from linear mixed effects regression models with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4 Short Form) [15] as the dependent variable and random effect for correctional facility (n = 296), including the associated P-value. a. Excluded in the final model building for perceived stress due to strong relationship with other variables in the model.

violence (p = 0.06), education (p = 0.08), post (p = 0.18), race (p = 0.20), and military service (p = 0.24).

All associations between demographic, work history, and occupational constructs were assessed before the model building process to eliminate multi-collinearity. Possibility of conflict, organizational stressors, supervisor support, and education were excluded in the rest of the model building progress due to their strong relationship with other variables in the model. More specifically, organizational stressors is significantly related to resource insufficiency (r = 0.84), work-related stress (r = 0.66), and supervisor support (r = 0.65); possibility of conflict related with environmental safety/dangerousness (r = 0.57); supervisor support related with procedural justice (r = 0.66) and co-worker support (r = 0.51) (all p’s < 0.001); and education related to post (χ² = 13.12, p = 0.01).

After purposeful selection with the included variables significantly associated with perceived stress, the variables remaining in the perceived stress model were work-related stress, operational stressors, procedural justice, job satisfaction, relationship status, work hours, and time employed at current facility. Model

a. (Estimate – mean)/standard deviation. Note: Estimates are coefficients from a linear mixed effects regression model of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4 Short Form) [15] with a random effect for correctional facility (n = 296).

diagnostics indicated the final model was a good fit (Variance Inflation Factor > 5, residual plots showed no major deviations from model assumptions, and overall model p < 0.001), and no additional transformations were necessary.

Results from the final model (Table 3) 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 < 0.001), and among married or partnered individuals (p = 0.05).

Standardized estimates of the final model were also created for each participant based on the difference of each score from the mean divided by the standard deviation. Based on these standardized estimates, operational stressors accounted for the greatest increase in perceived stress (β = 0.57), while job satisfaction accounted for the greatest decrease (β= −0.58). Average hours worked per week (β= 0.31) and lack of procedural justice (β= 0.32) accounted for the smallest increase in perceived stress, while time employed at current facility (β= −0.25) was associated with the smallest decrease in perceived stress.

This study found significant associations between perceived stress among corrections professionals and age, relationship status, and various occupational conditions, such as job specific stress (work-related stress, work overload), environmental (environmental safety and dangerousness, possibility of conflict, experienced violence), organizational (organizational and operational stressors, resource insufficiency, procedural justice, organizational support), work relationships (supervisor and co-worker support), job contentment (job satisfaction and intentions to quit), and outside of work (public image). When considering all possible demographic, work history, and occupational constructs included in this study using a purposeful selection approach, results indicate that corrections professionals’ perceived stress increases with work-related stress, longer work hours, increased operational stressors, and lack of procedural justice. Factors reducing perceived stress included increased job satisfaction, longer tenure at a facility, and being partnered or married. Results also suggest that corrections work-related stress is most influenced by operational stressors and job satisfaction.

Certain of these factors align with prior findings among occupational groups. Work-related stress [16] [17] refers to negative overall feelings towards work such as tension, fatigue, pressure, frustration, anger and worry. It is known that increases in stress at work contributes to overall perceptions of stress. In fact, a 2019 American Psychological Association report found that 64% of adults in the United States cited work as a significant source of stress [27]. Therefore, further exploring the occupational factors that remained in the stress model are also important to address in terms of mitigating stress among high stress occupations.

Operational stressors were constructs found to be significantly associated with perceived stress among corrections professionals. In this study, operational stressors [13] [22] [23] refer to occupational issues that contributed most to stress in the past month, such as shift work, mandatory overtime, and difficulty with work-life balance, such as managing social life outside of work, limited availability to spend with family and friends, and feeling like always on the job. This means when considering work-specific stressors, negative feelings towards these operational type factors are associated with increases in overall stress.

In addition, increases in work hours also contributed to stress, suggesting more hours spent at work also increases stress. The economic returns on the additional hours did not seem to mitigate the negative impact of long hours. These findings are consistent with previous research suggesting increases in occupational health issues [28] and work-family conflict [29] among those who work longer hours. This is especially apparent in an occupation such as corrections, which can require mandatory overtime to maintain operations.

Procedural justice [16] [17] [24] in this study refers to fairness of work-related procedures, such as inconsistencies with polices, rules and regulations in regard to disciplinary actions and promotions. A systematic review including the occupational constructs considered in this study, found that organizational structure and climate of correctional facilities have the most consistent relationship with work-related stress and burnout among staff [13]. These factors include unclear goals and policies, lack of procedural justice, lack of decision-making ability, and lack of organizational support. These findings are similar to the results of this study that procedural justice was most associated with increases in perceived stress.

Results also found that increases in job satisfaction, which included enjoyment and pride in their job, were a protective factor for stress among corrections professionals. Other research also finds that job satisfaction is negatively associated with work-related stress, whereas positively associated with hope and self-efficacy [30]. In addition, current research suggests increasing social support at work in order to significantly reduce the impact of job demands and improve job satisfaction [20].

There are limitations of this study limiting the generalizability or results, including small sample size, low participation rate (34% across facilities), and reduced geographical sampling distribution. Despite these limitations, our sample represented of the Oregon Department of Corrections’ demographics. Further, controlling for the random effect of facility accounted for within facility differences to account for generalizing results to other correctional facilities in Oregon.

This study has identified possible predictors of stress among Oregon corrections professionals. These findings can inform the development of policy changes that improve working conditions among this high stress occupation. Further, interventions addressing these factors determined as the greatest predictors of stress can improve corrections professionals’ mental well-being, physical health, job performance, and other economic outcomes.

We would like to thank Oregon Department of Corrections for their participation in this research.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

This project was supported by Award No. 2017-R2-CX-0036, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.

· Corrections professionals experience some of the highest levels of chronic stress compared to other occupations, leading to poor mental and physical health as well as negative economic and occupational outcomes.

· This self-report survey is first to concurrently index various work factors on corrections professionals’ stress levels.

· Results indicate work related factors such as work-specific stressors, work hours, operational stressors and lack of procedural justice significantly contribute to increase in overall stress levels. These differences can also be attributed to differences in job satisfaction, time currently employed at current correctional facility, and marital status.

· These findings can inform the development of work place health promotion interventions and policy changes to improve working conditions among this high stress occupation.

Ballin, J., Niederhausen, M., Kuehl, K.S., Elliot, D.L., McGinnis, W. and De Francesco, C. (2021) Defining Stress among Corrections Professionals. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 11, 237-250. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojpm.2021.116019