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A study on police stressors, coping strategies, and somatization symptoms among South Korean frontline police officers

Ilhong Yun (Department of Police Administration, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea)
Seung-Gon Kim (Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Gwangju, South Korea)
Sejong Jung (Department of Police Administration, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea)
Shahin Borhanian (College of Law, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea)

Policing: An International Journal

ISSN: 1363-951X

Article publication date: 4 November 2013

1174

Abstract

Purpose

Using a sample of male police officers in South Korea, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether police stressors revealed in the western literature are also applicable in the South Korean context.

Design/methodology/approach

Officers stationed at 16 frontline substations in a large metropolitan city reported the frequency with which they had been exposed to seven classes of police stressors and perceived somatization symptoms.

Findings

Work-family conflict and victimization at the hands of citizens were revealed as the significant predictors of officers’ stress-related somatization symptoms. Unlike western studies, the present study did not reveal moderating effects of coping strategies and social support. Stressors’ effects on somatization symptoms, however, were mediated by destructive coping strategies.

Originality value

This study contributes to the comparative literature on police stress.

Keywords

Citation

Yun, I., Kim, S.-G., Jung, S. and Borhanian, S. (2013), "A study on police stressors, coping strategies, and somatization symptoms among South Korean frontline police officers", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 787-802. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-03-2013-0020

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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