If the way employees die is a direct cause of their working environment, the employer has
a certain responsibility to address or prevent these contributing conditions in the
environment. Research reports indicate that police officers have higher suicide rates
compared to the rates of the general population. Increasing suicide rates for police
officers in recent years have been reported for the United States and Australia. Very
limited research data for this phenomenon, especially within the South African Police
Service, Limpopo Province was found. Previous research on suicide ideation focused on
social and individual factors. A research project was launched to determine the relationship
between certain demographic variables, coping strategies and stress factors which can be
linked to suicide.
Research was conducted by means of a cross-sectional survey design. A random, stratified
sample (n=204) of uniformed police members was taken from police stations in the
province. The Adult Suicide Ideation Questionnaire, the Police Stress Inventory, the Coping
Orientations to the Problems Experienced Questionnaire and a biographical questionnaire
were administered.
Results of a stepwise discriminant analysis showed that the combination of race, the use of
seeking emotional support as coping strategy and size of police stations can predict 75% of
high suicide ideation cases and 25% of low ideation cases. It was found that 5,88% of the
police officials had significant suicide ideation levels.
Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/316 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Van der Merwe, Cornelius Gerhardus |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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