The relationship of role problems, work trauma, cynicism, social support, and spiritual support to the physical and mental health, work performance, and absenteeism of correctional officers

This study was concerned with the effects of work role problems and stress in correctional institutions on the physical and emotional well-being and work performance of correctional officers. Using a self-report questionnaire which incorporated measures of perceived social support at home and at work, spiritual support, cynicism, role problems, and work and non-work trauma (experience and fears of physical violence), the relationship between these variables and measures of physical and emotional well-being and supervisor's ratings of work performance and reported absenteeism was examined in a sample of 153 correctional officers.;Physical well-being was measured by the reported frequency of occurrence of a variety of designated symptoms (e.g., headaches, gastrointestinal problems, chest pain/heart problems, etc.) during the preceding six months. The Global Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) was used as the measure of emotional distress. Non-work trauma (but not work trauma), cynicism (Social Beliefs Scale, Martinkowski, 1993), role problems (Occupational Role Questionnaire, Osipow & Spokane, 1987) and the interaction between perceived social support at home and at work each accounted for significant amounts of variance in emotional distress. Those who reported low social support both at home and at work reported the highest levels of emotional distress. Also, the interaction between cynicism and perceived support at work accounted for a significant portion of the variance in physical symptomatology. Those who were low in cynicism and perceived the highest levels of social support at work reported the lowest frequency of symptoms of illness.;Supervisors' ratings of work performance were not predicted by any of the predictors variables in the multiple regression analysis but did vary significantly with race, with African American officers receiving lower ratings. Also of note, African American officers scored significantly higher in cynicism than Caucasians--73.4 vs. 65.8. Together these two findings suggest the likelihood of the existence of some level of racism and racial tension within the correctional institutions studied.;Variance in absenteeism which was significantly accounted for by levels of perceived social support at home (beta = ;The findings are discussed in terms of the need for clearer role definitions, the nature of the prison environment, and their implications for interventions and future research.