How Images of God Affect Police Officer Stress

Abstract

This article addresses whether or not police officers' job related stress levels are affected by their image of God. Police officers have very high levels of occupational stress, and how they cope with it is vital to their physical and emotional health. Religiosity has been studied as a coping mechanism for stress, but images of God may have higher levels of predictability than religiosity when it comes to coping. The purpose of this article is to determine if stress levels can be predicted by an officer's image of God as loving and forgiving or as harsh and judgmental.