Job Stress and Work-Family Conflict as Correlates of Job Satisfaction Among Police Officials

High levels of stress and numerous stressful situations are imposed by police work. This can affect not just the psychological and physiological health of police officials but also their interpersonal relationships and work-life balance. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between job stress, work-family conflict, and job satisfaction among police officials. One hundred police officials working in the state of Goa Police Department were assessed. Data was collected using the job stress scale (Parker and DeCotiis Organ Behav Hum Perform 32(2):160-177,1983), the work-family conflict scale (Kopelman et al. Organ Behav Hum Perform 32:198-215,1983), and the job satisfaction scale (Singh and Sharma1986). Karl Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicate that the job stress of police officials is highly significantly and positively correlated with their work-family conflict (r= 0.340,p< 0.01); the job stress of police officials is highly significantly and negatively correlated (r= - 0.397,p< 0.01) with their job satisfaction; and the job satisfaction of police officials is negatively (r= - 0.091,p> 0.05) but not significantly correlated with their work-family conflict. These findings support the job strain model. The results can be beneficial for therapists and counselors to locate the problem areas among police officials. Besides, the findings could also help in developing interventions to reduce job stress and work-family conflict among police officials thus helping them to develop a healthy work-life balance. These efforts may thus contribute to improved public safety outcomes in communities.