Prevalence of Occupational Stress Among Female Police Officers in Dhaka Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The number of female police officers in the nation is steadily rising, and it is widely considered that they face higher levels of occupational stress compared to their male colleagues. Given the constraints of the research on stress among female police officers in Bangladesh, the purpose is to examine predominance of occupational stress experienced by these officers and find out some factors that contribute to this stress concerning organizational and operational stress. The study follows a cross-sectional quantitative research design where convenience sampling was used among 76 female police officers during the period December 2023 to March 2024 in Dhaka Metropolitan. Two structured and validated questionnaires are used for measuring occupational stress “The Operational Police Stress Questionnaire” and “The Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire.” The prevalence of operational stress among the respondent was 83% (moderate 53% and high 30%) and organizational stress was 82% (moderate 61% and high 21%). Operational and organizational mean were 56.7 and 52.8 respectively. The major stressor reported for operational stress was risk of being injured on the job (74%) and for organizational stress was lack of resources (83%) and staff shortage (82%) respectively. There is need for immediate action to reduce the high prevalence of occupational stress.