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Extreme Psychology and Personal Safety
2025. Vol. 2, no. 3, 48–65
doi:10.17759/epps.2025020303
ISSN: 3034-3666 (online)

Emotional and personal characteristics of stress resistance among employees of internal affairs officers

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. Stress resistance is a key factor of professional efficiency and psychological well-being for law enforcement officers whose work involves exposure to chronic stressors. The study of their emotional and personal characteristics is of significant interest to occupational psychology and has important practical implications for improving professional selection and psychological support. Objective: to identify the emotional and personal characteristics of stress resistance in police officers compared to representatives of civilian professions. Hypothesis. Unlike representatives of civilian professions, the structure of stress resistance in law enforcement officers is largely determined by deep-seated personality traits (anxiety, aggression, and rigidity), rather than by situational factors. Methods and materials. The study involved 48 men (mean age 27,5 ± 2,53 years), divided into two groups: patrol and canine service officers (n = 24) and civilian professionals (tour guides, n = 24). A diagnostic battery was used: stress resistance test (Kirsheva, Ryabchikova), “Boston Stress Resistance Test (The Stress Audit)”, Spielberger-Khanin inventory, H. Eysenck's mental states diagnostic method. Statistical analysis employed the Mann-Whitney U-test and correlation analysis. Results. Police officers demonstrated significantly higher levels of stress resistance (lower scores on stress vulnerability and overall stress susceptibility scales) compared to the control group. They also showed significantly lower levels of trait and state anxiety, future-oriented anxiety, aggression, and rigidity. Correlation analysis revealed that high stress vulnerability in police officers was associated with a complex of negative personality traits: trait anxiety, aggressiveness, rigidity, and frustration. In the group of civilian professionals, stress vulnerability correlated primarily with situational factors: state anxiety and frustration. Conclusions. The stress resistance of police officers has a complex structure and is associated with low levels of trait anxiety, frustration, rigidity, and unexpressed aggressiveness. These findings highlight the importance of assessing this complex of emotional and personal characteristics during professional psychological selection for law enforcement agencies to predict success in chronic stress conditions.

General Information

Keywords: employees of internal affairs officers, stress resistance, emotional-personal traits, anxiety, rigidity

Journal rubric: Psychology of Special Risk Professions

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/epps.2025020303

Received 26.05.2025

Revised 13.09.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Morozova, M.I., Kupchik, K.V., Yashneva, M.Yu. (2025). Emotional and personal characteristics of stress resistance among employees of internal affairs officers. Extreme Psychology and Personal Safety, 2(3), 48–65. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/epps.2025020303

© Morozova M.I., Kupchik K.V., Yashneva M.Yu., 2025

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Marina I. Morozova, Candidate of Science (Education), Associate Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Educational Technologies, Pushkin Leningrad State University, St.Petersburg, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5143-5110, e-mail: morozovami@mail.ru

Ksenia V. Kupchik, psychologist specialist of the Faculty of “Extreme Psychology”, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3080-1901, e-mail: kupchikkv@gmail.com

Maria Y. Yashneva, psychologist specialist of the Faculty of “Extreme Psychology”, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9094-3039, e-mail: maria@yashnev.ru

Contribution of the authors

Marina I. Morozova — annotation, writing and design of the manuscript; control over the research.

Ksenia V. Kupchik — application of statistical, mathematical and other methods for data analysis; visualization of research results.

Maria Yu. Yashneva – annotation, writing and design of the manuscript, data collection and research.

All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Commission of the Academic Council of the Faculty of Extreme Psychology (protocol no. 1 dated 08/28/2025).

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