Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1980. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Occupational stress has become a world-wide epidemic exacting severe tolls on both businesses and employees alike. Of all the workplace stressors, the perceived dangerousness of one's job is ever present within the occupation of corrections. The current study examined the mediating process of perceived stress on the relationship between perceived dangerousness of the job and the negative employee well-being outcomes of work-family conflict and symptoms of psychological distress, as well as the moderating effects of family supportive supervisor behaviors on this process. As part of a larger study, survey data were collected from 1,370 state correctional officers. It was hypothesized that perceived stress would fully mediate the relationship between perceived dangerousness of job and the negative well-being outcomes and that family supportive supervisor behaviors would moderate this mediation such that increased levels of family supportive supervisor behaviors would mitigate the negative well-being outcomes. The mediation hypotheses were not found to be supported. However, family supportive supervisor behaviors were found to moderate the relationship between perceived dangerousness of the job and work-to-family conflict. Additionally, family supportive supervisor behaviors were found to moderate the relationship between perceived stress and physical symptoms of psychological distress.

In this study, human movement studies, physical education, recreation and its contributions and stress have been placed in proper perspective. Conditions within the Department of Correctional Services regarding situations leading to the generation of stress in employees are also placed in perspective. Stress within the Department of Correctional Services is a growing concern both for Management and employees. This study is aimed at identifying stressors both from within as well as outside the work context as well as reviewing the relationship between stress and physical activity (sport and recreation) in general as well as in the context of the Department of Correctional Services sport policy. Heads of prisons have been selected for the purposes of this study as they are constantly under pressure. Heads of Prisons in the Department of Correctional Services are ranked according to the size of the prisons they supervise. Subsequently a Head of Prison could be ranked from a Correctional Official (CO) to an Assistant (ASD) or Deputy Director (DD). Although there are many methods of reducing stress this study proposes to view physical activity and recreation as a central part of life, much like sleeping and to show that sport and recreation can serve to balance work by providing restorative refractory periods as well as reducing stress. This study has shown that conditions in the workplace are a major contributor to stress. The study also shows that the DCS has excellent sporting facilities in most Management Areas and that these need to be utilised fully. The DCS sport and recreation policy should be reviewed to ensure that DCS employees make optimum use of the opportunities to participate in sport and recreation. Copyright 2001, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bhoodram, PA 2001, Stress levels as a rationale for the establishment of an employee recreation programme in the Department of Correctional Services in South Africa, MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11072005-161621 / > / Dissertation (MA (Human Movement Science))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences / unrestricted

A report on a study project presented to the Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development Faculty of Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Art in Occupational Social Work, October 2017 / Correctional officers face many stressors in their workplace settings such as guarding violent prisoners and ensuring the safety of everyone in the prison setting. The stressors they face may lead to occupational stress for some. The study aimed to understand the coping strategies used by correctional officers when dealing with occupational stress. To investigate the research aim, a qualitative approach and case study design were utilised. Convenience sampling was used to select 25 correctional officers employed at Leeuwkop prison, Medium B and Maximum facility. Semistructured interviews schedules were used where one-on-one interviews were conducted to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data gathered. The study revealed that correctional officers face many stressors in their work environment such as leadership style, prison violence, uneven ratio between inmates and correctional officers as well as shift work. These stressors have different impact on their professional and personal lives such as; aggression towards their family, psychological effects, society high expectations which prevent them from living their own lives and also some felt that their work isolates them from their families. To cope with occupational stress, the study revealed that correctional officers engage in sporting activities within the prison such as soccer, others make use of employee assistance programmes and some resort to less conventional ways of coping such as absenteeism and alcohol use. Recommendations were provided to curb the challenges experienced by correctional officers which included; the need for more advertisement of employee assistance programmes, hiring more correctional officers to even out the ratio between correctional officers and inmate, the need for more occupational social workers services within the prison and lastly the need for more South African research on correctional officers coping strategies. / XL2018

Safety at work is of the utmost importance to employees and the organizations they work for, and as such, it is a central issue for occupational health psychology. Although dramatic decreases in the number of worker injuries and fatalities have been observed over the last several decades, safety remains a principal concern for organizations. This is especially true in occupations in which employees face serious threats to their personal safety, such as correctional officers (COs). While a number of studies have identified workplace factors that contribute to worker safety, few have attempted to draw a link between employee nonwork experiences and safety at work. In the current study, a model was tested to examine whether the relationship between cognitive nonwork recovery experiences and safety performance at work was mediated by safety motivation. Specifically, the effort-recovery model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998) and the concept of self-regulatory resources (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) were utilized to test these relationships. It was hypothesized that psychological detachment during nonwork time can replenish cognitive resources that employees need in order to feel motivated to be focused on safety in the workplace, and negative work reflection can drain these resources. Furthermore, drawing on Broaden-and-Build theory (Fredrickson, 1998) it was posited that positive work reflection during nonwork time would have a positive relationship with safety motivation. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the relationship between these cognitive recovery experiences and safety motivation would be moderated by individual perceptions of safety climate. The hypotheses were examined in a sample of COs (N = 166) from two correctional facilities in Oregon. The results overall did not provide strong empirical support for the model. No support was found for the role of psychological detachment or negative work reflection. Additionally, perceptions of safety climate did not moderate the relationship between cognitive recovery experiences and safety. However, positive work reflection during nonwork time was significantly associated with safety participation motivation, which in turn had a positive association with safety participation. Additionally analyses revealed that this relationship was reciprocal in nature when utilizing an additional sample four months after data collection, such that safety participation motivation and safety participation predicted positive work reflection. The findings from the current study build on the research between the work-life interface and safety at work, suggesting that positive nonwork experiences can potentially be related to discretional safety performance at work. Implications for practical applications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfiIIment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Clinical Psychology) in the Department of Psychology, University o f Zululand, 2005. / Correctional officers in correctional institutions play a significant role in creating and maintaining the environment within the prison. As a result many issues related to correctional officers have been examined, for instance researchers found that correctional officers experience excessive stress that leads to physical illness, cost money, family problems or inability to perform duties appropriately (Finn, 2000). Most studies examining causes and negative consequences of correctional officers stress were conducted in Western countries, few studies have examined stress and stress related problems among correctional officers in other countries. Thus the present study examined the sources and the extent of stress among correctional officers in South Africa and the effect of these on job satisfaction.

Alcohol consumption has been linked to numerous adverse health and well-being outcomes; therefore determining what motivates individuals to drink is of utmost importance. One reason individuals may drink is to cope with work demands and their associated strain. This may be especially relevant for correctional officers (COs) as this occupation has been associated with high levels of job stressors and strain and heavy drinking. Drawing primarily on the job demands-resources and ego depletion models, this study examined how emotional job demands contribute to CO exhaustion and alcohol use. Additionally, interactions between common recovery from work experiences and exhaustion were tested to determine if recovery experiences could serve as a protective influence against work stress-related drinking. Participants were 1,370 correctional officers from 14 correctional facilities within the state of Oregon. Results indicate that exhaustion was positively related to both drinking quantity and drinking frequency and that emotional job demands had significant indirect effects on both types of drinking behaviors through employee exhaustion. The recovery experiences relaxation and detachment significantly moderated the relationship between exhaustion and drinking quantity, but not drinking frequency. Mastery experiences did not influence the strength of the positive relationship between exhaustion and either drinking outcome. These findings suggest that engaging in certain recovery experiences may lead to drinking fewer drinks on days when drinking, however the frequency of those days remains unaffected.

Research has begun to identify recovery experiences during nonwork time as an important mechanism explaining the relationship between job characteristics and strain (Geurts & Sonnentag, 2006; Kinnunen, Feldt, Siltaloppi, Sonnentag, 2011). Corrections officers face challenges unique to their occupation (Armstrong & Griffin, 2004) that may contribute to the high levels of strain that currently characterize their occupation (i.e., short life expectancy, high suicide rates; Spinaris & Denhof, 2011; Stack & Tsoudis, 1997). Though previous research has not examined emotion regulation, recovery experiences, and coping within corrections officers, these constructs may be of particular importance to an occupation that requires employees to navigate the complex demands of managing an incarcerated population of individuals. Emotion regulation - managing one's emotions - is an important aspect of many jobs, and has been linked with employee strain, such as burnout, psychological strain, and psychosomatic complaints (Hülshege & Schewe, 2011). However, research only begun to assess nonwork recovery and its relationship with emotion regulation strategies at work, and additionally the influence of individual coping strategies has not been considered in past studies. I offered that recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, and mastery) mediated the relationship between emotion regulation at work (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) and strain (i.e., disengagement, emotional exhaustion, and psychological distress). I further offered, based on the matching hypothesis (de Jonge & Dormann, 2006), that emotion-focused coping strategies (i.e., emotional social support and venting emotions) moderated the relationships between emotion regulation, recovery experiences, and strain. To examine these hypotheses, data were collected via a survey of corrections officers in Oregon (N = 1317). Results indicated that emotion regulation at work was associated with strain, and this relationship was partially mediated by recovery experiences. The results further suggested that the coping strategies examined in this study did not appear to moderate relationships between the study variables. These findings are discussed in the context of the present sample, and implications for future research are considered.