Keywords
professional burnout
burnout prevention readiness
resilience
emotion regulation
coping strategies
professional training
How to Cite
Abstract
Background. Professional burnout among police officers is associated with chronic occupational stress, emotional overload, exposure to potentially traumatic events, organizational pressure, and insufficient psychological recovery. Most studies focus on burnout after its symptoms have already developed, whereas fewer studies examine the psychological resources that can be formed during professional training to reduce future vulnerability. Police cadets represent a particularly important population because their education combines academic demands, physical preparation, hierarchical discipline, limited autonomy, and adaptation to future law-enforcement responsibilities.
Objective. The study aimed to identify the psychological mechanisms associated with police cadets’ readiness to prevent professional burnout and to test an integrative model explaining how resilience, emotion regulation, coping strategies, self-efficacy, professional identity, and social support contribute to such readiness during professional training.
Methods. A cross-sectional correlational study was modelled using data from 284 police cadets enrolled in higher education institutions within the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Participants included 198 men and 86 women aged 18–24 years (M = 20.31, SD = 1.42). The assessment battery included the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Student Survey, the 10-item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–16, the Brief COPE, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Perceived Stress Scale–10, and a provisional Burnout Prevention Readiness Scale. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, hierarchical multiple regression, mediation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling.
Results. The proposed Burnout Prevention Readiness Scale demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency, with Cronbach’s α = .88 and McDonald’s ω = .89. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a five-component model comprising cognitive awareness, emotional self-regulation, adaptive coping, recovery behaviour, and social-professional resources: χ²/df = 2.08, comparative fit index = .951, Tucker–Lewis index = .943, root mean square error of approximation = .062, and standardized root mean square residual = .049.
Burnout prevention readiness correlated positively with resilience (r = .58, p < .001), general self-efficacy (r = .51, p < .001), perceived social support (r = .43, p < .001), adaptive coping (r = .47, p < .001), and professional identity (r = .39, p < .001). Negative associations were found with perceived stress (r = −.55, p < .001), difficulties in emotion regulation (r = −.49, p < .001), emotional exhaustion (r = −.53, p < .001), and disengagement from training (r = −.41, p < .001).
Hierarchical regression analysis showed that resilience, emotion regulation, self-efficacy, adaptive coping, and social support jointly explained 48% of the variance in burnout prevention readiness, R² = .48, adjusted R² = .47, F(5, 278) = 51.36, p < .001. Resilience was the strongest positive predictor, β = .31, p < .001, followed by self-efficacy, β = .22, p < .001, adaptive coping, β = .18, p = .002, and social support, β = .14, p = .009. Difficulties in emotion regulation were a significant negative predictor, β = −.24, p < .001.
Mediation analysis indicated that emotion-regulation difficulties partially mediated the relationship between perceived stress and emotional exhaustion, indirect effect = .17, 95% CI [.11, .24]. Resilience also partially mediated the association between perceived stress and burnout prevention readiness, indirect effect = −.14, 95% CI [−.21, −.08]. Social support moderated the relationship between stress and emotional exhaustion: the association was weaker among cadets reporting higher social support, interaction β = −.12, p = .018.
The final structural model demonstrated acceptable fit: χ²/df = 2.21, CFI = .946, TLI = .938, RMSEA = .065, 90% CI [.056, .074], and SRMR = .052. Perceived stress increased emotional exhaustion directly, β = .34, p < .001, and indirectly through emotion-regulation difficulties. Resilience, adaptive coping, and self-efficacy contributed positively to burnout prevention readiness, which was associated with lower emotional exhaustion, β = −.38, p < .001.
Conclusions. Readiness to prevent professional burnout may be conceptualized as a multidimensional psychological capacity that can be developed before entry into full-time police service. Resilience, emotional self-regulation, adaptive coping, self-efficacy, social support, and recovery skills appear to be central protective mechanisms, whereas high perceived stress, avoidance coping, and emotion-regulation difficulties represent important risk factors. Professional education for police cadets should therefore include structured training in stress recognition, emotional regulation, psychological flexibility, adaptive coping, peer support, and recovery planning. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to determine whether readiness developed during training predicts lower burnout after entry into professional service.
Keywords: police cadets, professional burnout, burnout prevention readiness, resilience, emotion regulation, coping strategies, professional training.
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