Sens de la mission et détresse psychologique chez les fonctionnaires de police en mission dans les zones en crise du nord-ouest et du sud-ouest

Abstract

Psychological distress is an aspect of mental health at work that has been the subject of significant work, which specifies its dimensional structure and its main predictors. However, in the context of African work, very few studies have tested this dimensional structure and studied the relationship between this structure and the meaning of work, including the link with psychological well-being (the other aspect of mental health in work) and social support is well established (Nyock Ilouga et al., 2022). This theoretical limitation is detrimental to the advancement of basic research and stimulates researchers to test the robustness of the psychological distress model. Concerning our thesis, the fundamental problem is due to the fact that the police officers on mission in the crisis zones present on their return, for some, behaviors which denote psychological distress and this is not the case for others. In our approach to work, we conducted three studies. In the first study, we proceeded to the adaptation and validation of the psychological distress scale with police officers (study 1). In the second study, we proceeded to the adaptation and validation of the scale of the meaning of the mission among police officers in the Cameroonian context (study 2). Finally, we verified the mediating effect of social support on the relationship between sense of mission and psychological distress (study 3). 759 police officers completed a questionnaire comprising three scales: psychological distress scale, sense of mission scale, social support scale and items assessing the socio-demographic profile. Compared to study 1, the results of the analyzes revealed a two-factor structure integrating anxiety/depression and irritability/aggression. With respect to study 2, there appears a scale of the meaning of the mission with three dimensions: investment, significance and adhesion. With regard to study 3, it appears on the basis of the theory of organizational support, of the model of the meaning of work of that of psychological distress, that social support, in particular hierarchical support, mediates the relationship between the meaning of mission (investment in the mission, meaning of the mission and adherence to the mission) and psychological distress. This means that hierarchical support combines with sense of purpose to predict psychological distress. This idea was discussed, explanations were also given in relation to the absence of a mediating effect of informal or family support on the relationship between sense of mission and psychological distress before the proposal. suggestions for optimizing police missions.