Research On The Developmental Trajectory Of Police Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms In The Post-epidemic Period

Objective: This study examined the patterns and predictors of police posttraumatic stress symptoms(PTSS)trajectories in the post-epidemic era,in low-risk areas on the basis of verifying previous studies.Secondly,it explored the differences of police job burnout in different patterns of post-traumatic stress symptoms trajectory.Methods: From May 2020 to January 2021,325 polices,in XX City,Jiangsu Province,were successfully followed up at 4,8and 12 months post-epidemic using questionnaire method.Questionnaires mainly included self-demographic,PTSD Checklist for DSM-5(PCL-5),Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC),Social Support questionnaire,Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey.The latent growth mixture model(LGMM)was used to investigate the patterns and predictors of police post-traumatic stress symptoms trajectories and the differences of job burnout in different patterns of PTSS symptoms.Results:latent growth mixture modeling identified four post-traumatic stress symptoms trajectories: the persistent mild symptom group: the initial level was moderate,and then increased slowly;resilience group: the initial level was low,and then decreased slowly;low-risk delayed onset group,the initial level was higher and then increased slowly;High-risk delayed onset group: the initial level was higher,and then increased rapidly.The proportions of the four patterns in the sample were 47.7%,37.2%,13.5% and 1.5%,respectively.Multivariate Logistic regressions indicated that compared to the resilience group,male polices with history of psychological problems more likely to be the low-risk delayed onset group or the persistent mild symptom group.Besides,the lower levels of resilience and social support polices had,the less likely would develop resilient group.The results of analysis of variance show that the level of job burnout in the delayed onset and persistent mild symptom group was significantly higher in the resilience groupConclusion: There is heterogeneity in the development trajectory of police posttraumatic stress symptoms in the post-epidemic era,which can be divided into four different patterns of trajectory.The proportion of the persistent mild symptom group was highest,followed by resilience group,which shows that nearly half of the polices are affected by the epidemic.Thus,more attention should be paid to polices in the delayed onset group,more psychological interventions should be provided to improve resilience and social support of polices in the post-epidemic era.