Suicide in the South African Police Service is a reality. The inability to cope effectively with
stressful events in a working environment could lead to chronic stress, burnout and even
suicide. The purpose of this research was to establish the current level of suicide ideation in
police officials in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. Secondly, the purpose was to determine the
relationship between coping and stress, and thirdly, whether these factors could he used to
predict suicide ideation of police officials in the Kwazulu-Natal Province.
A cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve the research objectives. The study
population consisted of 272 uniformed police officials in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. The
following measuring battery was used: a biographical questionnaire, the Adult Suicide
Ideation Questionnaire, COPE Questionnaire, and the Police Stress Inventory. Descriptive
statistics (e.g. standard deviations, means, skewness and kurtosis) and inferential statistics
were used to analyse the data. Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlation coefficients
and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess the reliability and validity of the
measuring battery. Discriminant analysis was used to determine which variables could be
used to predict suicide ideation.
The results indicated that 9 (3,30%) of the uniformed police officials have significant suicide
ideation levels and that 11 (4,15%) police officials in the KwaZulu-Natal Province have
attempted suicide in the past. No difference was found between the suicide ideation of males
and females. A positive correlation between suicide ideation, police-specific stressors, as well
as problem-focused coping, passive coping and social support was found. The results also
indicated correlations between suicide ideation, medical condition and alcohol abuse, where
stress because of lack of resources was identified as the primary stressor that caused alcohol
abuse.
The results also indicate that stress caused by job demands and lack of resources as well as
police-specific stressors, problem-focused coping, passive coping and social support could be
used to classify police officials into groups of high and low suicide ideation.
Recommendations with regard to the improvement of the South African Police Service, as
well as 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:10394/321 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Strauss, Linda |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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