POLICE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND JOB STRESSORS 3 English Police Officers ’ Alcohol Consumption and Links with Organisational Job Stressors Globally

This study describes alcohol consumption and examines associations with organisational job stressors among female (n = 493) and male (n = 707) English police officers. Significantly fewer female than male officers reported hazardous alcohol consumption (32% vs. 44%) and probable harmful alcohol consumption (5% vs. 11%). Stressor exposure was associated with alcohol consumption among males only, with high exposure to job control, work relationships, and role clarity stressors associated with elevated odds of probable harmful alcohol consumption. Findings suggest alcohol consumption represents a concern in English policing and point to stressor-exposure reduction as a mechanism to reduce alcohol consumption. Keywords: alcohol consumption, AUDIT-C, Management Standards, police, stress POLICE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND JOB STRESSORS 3 English Police Officers’ Alcohol Consumption and Links with Organisational Job Stressors Globally, alcohol consumption is the seventh leading risk factor for deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (Griswold et al., 2018). Alcohol consumption, even at low levels or consumed infrequently, is associated with increased risk of a range of illnesses (Yasin and Banoub, 2018). In the organisational context, alcohol consumption represents a preventable threat to various aspects of operational effectiveness including, inter alia, sickness absence and presenteeism, job performance, and work accidents (Anderson, 2012). In a wide-ranging review of the health and wellbeing of emergency responders in the United Kingdom (UK), The Royal Foundation (2020) highlighted a paucity of research on alcohol misuse and called for work to inform interventions that address the needs of emergency responders. The present study represents a response to that call with a focus on alcohol consumption in English police officers. Specifically, we set out to examine the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption, and prevalence of hazardous and probable harmful consumption, in a large and diverse sample of police officers. In addition, we examine linkages between alcohol consumption and exposure to potentially modifiable organisational job stressors embedded within the psychosocial work environment that might provide a focus for intervention activities targeting alcohol misuse. Alcohol Consumption in UK Policing High rates of alcohol consumption have been observed worldwide among police officers (Syed et al., 2020), yet surprisingly little is known about consumption rates in UK policing. A small body of evidence exists concerning the prevalence of alcohol consumption among UK police officers and how this compares to policing in other national contexts. Research involving police officers from five nations whose alcohol consumption was assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT: Barbor et al., 2001) showed a mean consumption rate of 5.95 (maximum possible range 0-40) among 102 UK POLICE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND JOB STRESSORS 4 officers. This rate was higher than observed among officers from the United States (US) (M = 4.18) and Canada (M = 5.17), yet below rates found in Australia (7.16) and New Zealand (6.95) (Ménard et al., 2016). In all five national samples the mean rate fell below the threshold at which consumption is considered hazardous (AUDIT score ≥8). Across the multinational sample as a whole, male officers reported significantly higher consumption (Ménard and Arter, 2014). Similar consumption rates have been observed in other US and Australian studies (Davey et al., 2000a; Violanti et al., 2011). Studies such as these provide a useful indication of mean alcohol consumption rates in policing and permit cross-national comparisons. However, two shortcomings in the UK evidence base point to the need for further investigation in this context. First, existing knowledge is based on a single sample of 102 officers. Research on a larger scale is required to generate a reliable indication of alcohol consumption in UK policing and permit stratification by socioand occupationaldemographic groups. Second, the existing knowledge base describes only the mean alcohol consumption rate. The proportion and socioand occupational-demographic characteristics of police officers reporting hazardous and probable harmful alcohol consumption remains unknown. This represents an important gap in the knowledge base since knowledge in this regard would help to establish whether alcohol consumption in UK policing represents an occupational health concern. Moreover, identification of at-risk groups is necessary to inform the targeting of intervention resources. In the current study we seek to extend on current knowledge by examining alcohol consumption in a large and diverse sample of UK police officers and establishing the proportion of officers reporting hazardous and probable harmful alcohol consumption whereby intervention may be warranted. Alcohol Consumption and Job Stress in UK Policing There exists an extensive literature going back several decades attesting to linkages between alcohol consumption and job stress in police officers, much of which hails from the POLICE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND JOB STRESSORS 5 US (e.g., Violanti et al., 1985). Viewed through the lens of general strain theory (Agnew, 1992), alcohol consumption can be regarded as a maladaptive mechanism for coping with stressor exposures that is mediated by negative affect; a contention that finds support in policing (Gibson et al., 2001; Piquero, 2005; Swatt et al., 2007). The police stress literature generally divides job stressors into two categories: operational and organisational. The former encompasses stressors specific to job content, with three types of operational stressor having been distinguished in UK policing: exposure to death and disaster (traumatic), violence and injury (routine), and sexual crime (vicarious) (Brown et al., 1999). Organisational stressors concern generic or universal characteristics found in the context of the job, such as high demands, low control, low managerial support, and poor relationships. Organisational stressors are often reported as the more problematic in policing both in the UK (Collins and Gibbs, 2003) and internationally (e.g., Carleton et al., 2020; McCreary and Thompson, 2006), possibly because they represent daily routines (Violanti et al., 2017) and “are perceived as being beyond one’s control and oppressive, unnecessary and inescapable” (Chan and Anderson, 2020: 496-497). Evidence on relations between alcohol consumption and job stressor exposure in UK policing remains limited and has produced mixed findings. Regarding operational stressors, degree of all-career exposure to critical traumatic incidents (e.g., being shot at; being threatened with a gun, knife or other weapon; seeing someone die) failed to significantly account for alcohol consumption rates among police officers drawn from five national contexts, including a small UK sample (Ménard et al., 2016). Taking the multinational sample as a whole, contrasting patterns of relations between stressor exposure and alcohol consumption were observed by gender, with critical incident exposure and social stressors showing small yet significant correlations with alcohol consumption among males only (Ménard and Arter, 2014). Among child abuse investigation unit police officers in England POLICE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND JOB STRESSORS 6 and Wales (N = 101), cross-sectional associations were found between the number of interviews conducted in the previous six month (with suspected perpetrators, adult survivors, and child victims) and secondary traumatic stress, which in turn was associated with use of negative coping strategies that included alcohol and drugs (Hurrell et al., 2018). Qualitative research involving UK police officers investigating child sexual exploitation found less support for a stressor-alcohol link, with few interviewees reporting use of alcohol as a coping method (Ahern et al., 2017). Similarly, in a small-scale interview study involving five UK police officers that had experienced mental health problems, a minority reported using alcohol as a mechanism for coping with stress (Edwards and Kotera, 2020). Some UK evidence exists concerning relations between organisational job stressors and alcohol consumption. A positive association was observed between exposure to organisational job stressors and use of ‘alcohol or other drugs’ among a sample of 720 officers and civilian call handlers working in police call handling and dispatch centres (Galbraith et al., 2021). Organisational job stressor exposures were assessed using the UK Health and Safety Executive’s1 (n.d.) Management Standards Indicator Tool, which evaluates exposure to seven dimensions of the psychosocial work environment that, if not properly managed, can lead to harm to employees and organisations. These dimensions include job demands, job control, managerial support, peer support, work relationships, role ambiguity, and change communication and consultation. Initially designed to assist organisations in meeting their legal duty in relation to psychosocial risk assessment (Cousins et al., 2004; Mackay et al., 2004), the instrument’s popularity as a work environment research tool has mushroomed in recent years (Brookes et al., 2013). Police-specific reference values are available (Houdmont et al., 2012). In view of the demonstrated efficacy of the Management Standards Indicator Tool in the UK police context we used this scale in the current study to 1 The government agency responsible for regulation of work-related health and safety. POLICE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND JOB STRESSORS 7 assess organisational job stressor exposures. A research focus on organisational job stressors is also advantageous from an intervention standpoint. Given the nature of the policing role, it can be difficult to eradicate exposure to operational stressors. In contrast, organisational stressors are mo