title: Anxiety and styles of coping with occupational stress resulting from work with 'dangerous' prisoners in prison service officers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Prisoners categorised as 'dangerous' are a category of prisoners that require and/or force into using special measures of caution, protection and security. The aim of the study was to examine the intensity of anxiety (as a state and as a trait) experienced by officers working with 'dangerous' prisoners and styles of coping with stress they adopt.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 40 officers working with 'dangerous' prisoners (the study group, SG) and 60 officers of the security department not working with 'dangerous' prisoners (the reference group, RG) were studied. The intensity of anxiety was assessed applying the Polish version of 'State-Trait Anxiety Inventory' (STAI); styles of coping with stress were explored employing the Polish version of 'Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations' (CISS) and the author's own questionnaire. Data were analysed using the mean, standard deviation, difference testing (the Mann-Whitney U test), correlation-regression procedure (Kendall's tau, τ correlation coefficient and forward stepwise multiple regression).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Officers in the SG faced verbal and physical aggression; nevertheless, scores of officers in both the groups were within the interval of mean scores for all the studied STAI and CISS variables. Officers in the SG achieved significantly higher scores on the state-anxiety scale and the Emotion-Oriented Style (EOS), and lower scores on the Task-Oriented Style (TOS) and Social Diversion (SD). The correlation-regression procedure indicated that there were relationships between anxiety and styles of coping with stress but they differed slightly between the groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Officers in the SG feel state anxiety stronger and display a stronger preference for the EOS than officers in the RG. Officers in the RG more strongly prefer the TOS and SD. State anxiety is a variable negatively explaining the TOS in the SG, whereas anxiety as a trait is a variable explaining the EOS in both the groups. The coping styles of warders dealing with dangerous prisoners are different and may need specific psychological counselling and training programmes.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychology,Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce,Piotrków Trybunalski Branch,Piotrków Trybunalski,Poland.
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsirigotis
authors.affiliation: 2Institute of Applied Psychology,Social University of Sciences,Lodz,Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gruszczyński
authors.affiliation: 3Remand Centre,Piotrków Trybunalski,Poland.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pęczkowski
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D016495:Police / Q000523:psychology*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D011330:Prisons; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology; D000078329:Workforce
keywords: anxiety; dangerous prisoners; prison service; security department officers; styles of coping with occupational stress