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Systematic Review
The objectives of this systematic review were to identify, retrieve, evaluate and synthesize the available evidence regarding outcomes of stress management interventions provided to veteran police officers and recruits.
The results of the present review indicate that stress management interventions had no significant effect on psychological, behavioral or physiological outcomes. Whereas stress can contribute to negative psychological, behavioral and physiological outcomes the 12 primary studies examined psychological stress outcomes. Only three studies examined behavioral outcomes, and two examined physiological outcomes. Near null effects were found for psychological, behavioral, and physiological outcomes. Moderator analyses, although difficult and exploratory with so few studies, also failed to find any meaningful differences across the studies.
These results do not provide evidence to support the efficacy of stress management interventions for police officers or recruits. Given the weakness of the research designs, we can neither claim that these programs are effective or ineffective.More rigorous studies are needed that evaluate the efficacy of stress management interventions among police officers and recruits. Several recommendations are proposed for future research. First, police organizations should conduct evaluation research of their current stress management interventions that includes random assignment. Second, stress management interventions for police officers and recruits should focus on specific types of stress (i.e., organizational or personal). The type of stress that is the focus of the intervention should be described in studies. Finally, more qualitative data are needed to contextualize participants' experiences with the intervention.