Probation Officers Reduce Their Stress by Cultivating the Practice of Loving - Kindness with Self and Others
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Probation offic ers (PO s ) who provide community supervision are susceptible to stress. Their clients can be manipulative, uncooperative, and difficult to supervise. It is essential for the officers to treat their clients with human dignity, and m otivate them to comply with supervision while remaining non - confrontational, empathic, attentive, caring, and directive. The stress of supervising this population can compromise the officer’s health, job performance, and effect ive supervision. Caring Science (CS) , Caritas Process O ne (CP1) : C ultivating the p r actice of loving - kindness and equanimity toward s s elf and o thers (Watson, 2008 , pp. 47 - 60 ) can lower the PO s ’ stress while promoting a professional , authentic presence, and a positive human in teraction with their clients. This nursing theory can be applicable to forensic pro fessionals because t he practice of loving - kindness for self is necessary in order to develop a state of balance and composure under stressful situation s . This study compares the perceived level of stress usi ng the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) in a sa mple of 28 PO s in the State of Hawaii , before and after the workshop on Caritas Process One . A paired samples t test was conducted to compare the difference of the PSS mean scores of the two trials. There was a statistically significant difference between trial 1 and tr ial 2. Higher than average total scores in trial 1 before implementing Caritas Process One could inc rease the PO s’ vulner ability to compromised health and the develop ment of stress - related illness. The significantly lower scores in trial 2, after the application of Caritas Process One , in dicate a decrease in the PO s’ susceptibility to stress - induced illnesses. Post training the officers reported improvement in positive regard towards clients, a greater sense of being present with clients , and being more caring and auth entic . The results of this study suggest that the implementation of CP1 is a valu able practice for lowerin g the stress of P O s and facilitating a caring supervision relationship.
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2185471536