Sense of security felt by the armed police with different service length and influential factors

Abstract

Objective To investigate the status of sense of security felt by the armed police and the influential factors thereof.Methods The sense of security,stress level,comprehension of social supports and the coping styles were measured and evaluated by use of Security Questionnaire(SQ),Psychological Stress Self-Evaluation Test(PSET),Perceived Social Support Scale(PSSS) and Coping Style Scale(CSS) in 725 armed police,and the differences were compared between the servicemen with different service length(1,2 and 3 years).The correlation between security sense(expressed as personal safety and determination of control) and comprehension of social supports,coping styles and T score on stress level were analyzed.A stepwise regression analysis was done to screen the factors influencing the security sense of servicemen with the overall score of security sense as the dependent variable and the comprehension of social supports(expressed as inside-and outside-family support),coping styles(expressed as illusion,resignation,rationalization,self-condemned determinant,resort and problem-solving capacity) and T score on stress level as the independent variables.Results Compared with the armed police with 1 year of military service,those with 2 or 3 years of military service got lower scores in personal safety,determination of control,inside-and outside-family support,and resort and problem-solving capacity(P < 0.05),and got higher scores in T score on stress level,illusion,resignation,rationalization,and self-condemned determinant(P < 0.01),whereas no difference was found when compared with the soldiers with 2 years of service to those with 3 years of service(P > 0.05).The two factors of comprehension of social supports(inside-and outside-family support),and the two factors of coping styles(resort and problem-solving capacity) were positively correlated with the sense of security(personal safety and determination of control)(P < 0.001);while the four factors of coping styles(illusion,resignation,rationalization and self-condemned determinant) and the T score on stress level were negatively correlated with the sense of security(P < 0.001).It was proved by multivariate linear regression analysis that outside-family support,problems-solving capacity,resort and self-condemned determinant,resignation and stress level were the influential factors of servicemen security sense.Conclusion A several factors may influence the psychological security sense of armed police.It is important to give a directed psychological service aiming the different service length of the soldiers.