Level of Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Police officers of NWFP, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression among the police officers of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and to further differentiate these levels on the basis of the prominently perceived psychosocial factors i.e. sex, marital status, length of service, official ranks, location of the duty stations, and nature of the duty stations. The inquiry included 315 police officers from different districts of the understudied province. Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) was administered accompanied by Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe 1967). It was hypothesized that the police officers would project severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Female officers, married officers, officers with more years of service, officers with low official ranks, officers working in urban areas, and officers working in sensitive police stations were predicted to have higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress as compared to male officers, unmarried officers, officers with less years of service, officers with high official ranks, officers working in rural areas, and officers working in neutral police stations respectively. The results supported the hypotheses on highly significant differences.