Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Susan Rarick

Abstract

Correctional officers occupy an important societal role in maintaining safety and assisting in the rehabilitation of inmates; however, both their performance and mental health are highly susceptible to fatigue because of working in a high stress environment. This study investigated the relationship between correctional officers' demographic factors (level of education, marital status, gender, and race/ethnicity) and their psychological resilience. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC-10) was used to measure correctional officers' resilience when responding and or coping with stress. This study utilized the stress-vulnerability model as a framework to investigate protective factors against and risk factors for psychopathological symptoms. Participants included 52 individuals who were over the age of 18, employed as correctional officers, and who worked for either the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Two tests measured the outcome variable of correctional officers' psychological resilience. The first factorial 2-way analysis of variance revealed no significant differences in correctional officers' levels of psychological resilience by gender and or race/ethnicity. The second factorial 2-way analysis of variance revealed no significant differences in correctional officers' levels of psychological resilience by marital status and or educational level. The information gained from this study implies that the development of programs that improve correctional officers' resilience and prevent the onset of psychopathology should be focused on factors other than races/ethnicities, genders, marital statuses, and levels of education.

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