Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Edward Keane

Abstract

Law enforcement is a high-stress, high-risk occupation that can lead to mental health issues. These issues can affect law enforcement officers and the level of service they provide to the public. Traditionally, officers have been found to be resistant to seeking help for their mental health. It was hypothesized that generational turnover may be impacting this positive change found in recent research. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the effect of generational cohorts on officers' mental health help-seeking behaviors. The core concepts of the Theory of Planned Behavior (attitudes, subjective norms, internal perceived behavioral control, external perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions) were used to generate the research questions. Using analysis of variance in a sample of 103 law enforcement officers, the results of this study indicated overall positive mental health help-seeking behavioral intentions across the generations. Attitudes, subjective norms, internal perceived behavioral controls, and behavioral intentions were not significant when compared to generational cohorts, indicating that other factors may impact this sample's mental health help-seeking behavioral intentions. There were statistically significant differences between generations for external perceived behavioral controls, indicating that barriers to mental health help-seeking are a key concern in this sample. The findings from this study may be used to inform positive social change through psychoeducation, intervention, and prevention programs across generational cohorts of law enforcement officers.

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