Risk and Resilience Factors among Italian Municipal Police Officers Exposed to Critical Incidents

Police officers are exposed to critical events as part of their duty which can affect their well-being. The present study examines the relationships between risk and protective factors and health outcome following critical incident exposure among police officers. Person-oriented analyses were applied to questionnaire data from a sample of 509 Italian municipal police officers. Two groups with different patterns of risk and protective factors were found by cluster analysis. One group (resilient officers) had higher levels of protective factors such as self-esteem and social support and lower levels of risk factors such as peritraumatic distress and perceived threat in comparison to the other group (non resilient police officers). The resilient group reported fewer traumatic stress reactions than the non resilient group in spite of a similar degree of exposure to critical incidents and better health than expected in spite of severe abuse. The two groups differed according to sleeping pills use but not for alcohol and smoking habits. Risk and protective factors could offer an explanation of resilience as an outcome.