The effects of gender and country on stress and resilience: A comparative study of police academy recruits from Australia, China and Canada

Policing is a stressful career. It not only involves shift work and working directly with the general public but is often a thankless, unpredictable and violent occupation. It is difficult to argue against the reality that police officers experience a range of unavoidable day-to-day stressors in undertaking their duties that the police organisation is unable to prevent or mitigate. It is important, therefore, to recruit people with high levels of resilience, who can manage their stress levels in a positive way. The purpose of the research study was to examine the effects of gender and country on stress and coping in police recruits. Three classes of police recruits at academies in Australia, Canada and China completed the questionnaire, which was developed by the authors to measure the current self-reported level of stress and resilience and to identify lifestyle factors that might exacerbate stress or conversely contribute to better coping and greater stress resilience. Results showed that Chinese policemen reported higher levels of stress and poorer lifestyle and coping skills than Australian and Canadian policemen and women and Chinese police women in the academy. It is recommended that further research be done to look at the experiences of probationary policemen and women to establish if time in the job might influence these findings.