Community conflict associated with PTSD and negative outcomes for United Nations police officers

The present study offers a unique comparison of workplace stressors and negative psychosocial outcomes for United Nations police officers with and without community conflict directed toward members of their national UNPOL contingents. Research participants included 409 United Nations police officers who had been targeted by community conflict directed at their respective agency. The results from the study suggest that the current form of community conflict relevant to police officers includes both in-person and social media attacks, and that such community conflict is a predictor of negative outcomes for officers beyond those attributable to workplace stressors within their police agencies. These findings could guide police departments to develop community-relations programs to reduce the incidence or to respond effectively to these community attacks. Present results also indicate that the sense of powerlessness experienced in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms is a consistent "link" between such community conflicts and a variety of negative psychosocial outcomes for police officers.