Abstract
Over the past decade, South Africa has seen increases in aggressive and violent crimes, such as murder, sexual assault, and violent robberies (South African Police Service [SAPS], 2020a). SAPS employees are often exposed to direct and indirect trauma, which may give rise to both primary and secondary traumatic stress. Monitoring the well-being of SAPS employees is important in terms of Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely good health and well-being (United Nations, 2020). International literature on police officers suggests that traumatic stress results in impaired mental health and work engagement (Heffren & Hausdorf, 2016), yet in the SAPS there is a dearth of research on this relationship. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between traumatic stress, mental well-being, and work engagement in SAPS employees working in the City of Johannesburg. A simple random sampling technique was used at precinct level, which yielded 126 participants from different SAPS precincts. The results revealed relatively low levels of primary traumatic experiences (๐๐๔ดค = 1.14; SD = 1.284), moderate levels of secondary traumatic stress (๐๐๔ดค = 31.47; SD = 15.06), relatively high levels of mental well-being (๐๐๔ดค = 50.61; SD = 15.66), and average levels of work engagement (๐๐๔ดค = 63.84; SD = 29.03).
Several statistically significant differences were observed, namely higher levels of primary traumatic experiences and secondary traumatic stress among participants impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, there were higher levels of primary traumatic experiences among those impacted by the July 2021 unrest. Regression analysis revealed that secondary traumatic stress was a predictor of mental well-being. These results underpin calls for the South African
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government to prioritise mental health (Kleintjes et al., 2021), and they suggest that SAPS employees would benefit from an upscaling of the current Employee Health and Wellness awareness and intervention programmes offered. Programmes aimed at navigating societal-level stressors, such as mass protests, civil unrest, and the Covid-19 pandemic, would also be beneficial, given the influence of these events on traumatic stress.