Die verband tussen fortigene faktore en psigologiese welstand by SAPD-lede in hoërisiko-eenhede

The work of police officials is universally regarded as highly stressful. Police officials are often described as secondary victims because of their daily exposure to critical incident stressors. The unsuccessful coping with these stressors have a negative impact and effect, not only on the individual police official, but also on his family, the SAPS as an organisation, and the community at large. In spite of this some police officials manage to successfully handle their stressful work environment and maintain psychological well-being. Constructs from the positive psychological and psychofortological metha-perspectives were used as the theoretical framework for this research study. Psychological well-being is enhanced through the existence of psychological strengths from within the individual as well as resources from the environment. The objective of this research study was to ascertain the relationship between different internal dispositional factors as well as external contextual factors and the psychological well-being of police officials in high-risk units. The contribution of fortigenic factors like personal competence, self appraisal, appraisal of family support, appraisal of general social support, sense of coherence, copingstrategies as well as a few demographic variables, were included in the research. The group investigated consisted of 90 police officials in the Free State Province, between the ages of 20 and 51 years with 6V2 years of experience in a high-risk unit. Most of the respondents where male (86.67%); married (75.56%) and of the rank of inspector (77.33%). In addition to a biographical questionnaire, which provided information regarding gender, home language, and marital status, five additional questionnaires were used in this study to determine the relationship between fortigenic factors and the psychological well-being of the research group. Psychological wellbeing was measured with The Satisfaction of Life Scale. The previously mentioned fortigenic variables were measured with the Personal Competence Scale, the Fortitude Questionnaire, the Sense of Coherence Scale, and the COPE Questionnaire. Pearson's correlations were used to determine the relationship between variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine the proportion of variance of satisfaction with life that is explained by the predictor variables. The results indicated significant positive relationships between personal competence, self appraisal, appraisal of family support, appraisal of general social support as well as sense of coherence and psychological well-being (satisfaction of life) of police officials. The predictor variables together accounted for nearly 41% of the variance in psychological well-being of the research group. The results of the regression analysis showed that a practically significant correlation of medium effect size exists between personal competence and psychological well-being, while practically significant correlations of small effect size were found between marital status, appraisal of general social support as well as problem-focussed coping and psychological well-being. Thus these variables serve as significant predictors of psychological well-being of police officials in high-risk units. Based on the results, it was recommended that these fortigenic factors be included in the selection of members for high-risk units. These findings can also be used in the development and implementation of intervention programmes within the SAPS.