Stress, Sleep, and Meaning in the Lives of Law Enforcement Officers

Two exploratory structural equation models were developed with a single sample of 339 law enforcement officers from the United States of America. The first model explored the interrelationship between stress and sleep as they relate to mental and physical health. The robustness of a mediation model was supported with sleep disturbance mediating the relationship between stress and health. Unlike previous research, the model was extended to non-traumatic stress. The second model explored the possibility of work-derived meaning moderating the effect of stress on these health outcomes. This was not supported in the current sample. Findings indicated the primacy of stress among self-reported biopsychosocial factors for law enforcement officers. Organizational policy implications and future directions for research are discussed.