{"id":1355,"date":"2019-08-30T09:03:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T23:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/gci-insights\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2019-11-11T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T03:22:09","slug":"exploring-the-impact-of-retirement-on-police-officers-wellbeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/gci-insights\/2019\/08\/30\/exploring-the-impact-of-retirement-on-police-officers-wellbeing\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the impact of retirement on police officers’ wellbeing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lyndel Bates<\/a>, Elise Sargeant<\/a> and Christine Carney*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brief is based on the following paper published by the authors: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carney, C., Bates, L. & Sargeant, E. (2019) Exploring the impact of retirement on police officers wellbeing<\/a>, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal<\/em>, DOI:10.1080\/15614263.2019.1658584.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What problem does your research address? Why is this significant?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Police officers may experience negative impacts of retirement given the nature of police work and the impact of mandatory age retirement policies. Studies of police retirees have identified poor health outcomes in comparison to the general population (Caudill & Peak, 2009; Ruiz & Morrow, 2005; Tuohy, Knussen & Wrennall, 2005). This research explored the impacts of police officer retirement, including those who had to retire due to mandatory age policies and the coping strategies that were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you conduct\nyour research?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Semi-structured interviews lasting between 40 and 120 minutes were conducted with 20 police officers who had left the Queensland Police Service. Of these, seven had left after accepting redundancy packages (due to an organisational restructure), 10 had mandatorily retired at the age of 60 and three had left the service voluntarily. Two participants were female reflecting the proportion of males and females at the time the officers were recruited. The average age was 64.23 years (sd = 5.6) and the average length of service was 35.82 years (sd = 7.59).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your major\nfindings?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There were four key factors affecting retirees\u2019 subjective\nwellbeing: (a) social networks (b) emotional wellbeing (c) family wellbeing and\n(d) financial wellbeing. Many participants indicated that they missed the\nsocial networks within their job. They missed the people and the interactions\nthat they had at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of emotional wellbeing, participants felt\nconflicting emotions in terms of loss and relief, loneliness, relevance deficit\nand loss of social interaction. There was sadness at leaving an organisation\nwith which they had spent their entire career. Several participants felt angry\nat the mandatory age retirement policy believing it to be discriminatory and\noutdated. For some people, their emotional wellbeing improved after retirement\nas they socialised with friends and undertook hobbies and activities which they\ndid not necessarily have time for while employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retirement meant that some participants had to re-negotiate\nfamily roles, particularly, if the spouse remained in paid employment. In some\ncases, the retiree had a more positive relationship with their spouse after a\nreadjustment period. There were also improved or increased relationships\nbetween retirees and their children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial impacts of retirement depended on the rank at\nwhich they retired, experiences of divorce and the type of superannuation held.\nParticipants reported being worried about the financial effects of retirement,\nparticularly as they moved from being fortnightly to monthly. Non-commissioned\nofficers tended to have more financial concerns around retirement compared to\ncommissioned officers. Divorce also affected the financial wellbeing of\nparticipants with some commenting that choosing their policing career over\ntheir family ultimately lead to divorce. When the divorce occurred before\nretirement, there is an opportunity for the officer to counteract some of the\nfinancial issues. However, if divorce occurred after retirement, this was not\npossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coping strategies identified from the interviews\nincluded actively seeking out social support networks through volunteering,\nestablishing friendship networks outside of policing prior to leaving the\nservice, focusing more strongly on family and taking up a hobby. Others used\npassive coping strategies including the denial of the impending date of\nretirement and focusing strongly on work rather than planning for retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does your research mean for policy and practice?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Given police officers often spend the majority of their working life serving their communities, it is important to ensure officers are supported in retirement. Some strategies that may be considered include examining the viability of transitioning police officers from full-time to part-time or casual employment, providing information regarding the emotional, social, financial and health impacts of retirement to those who are approaching this time and developing peer support groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Christine Carney is a Senior Research Officer in the Queensland Police Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Caudill, C. B., & Peak, K.\nJ. (2009). Retiring from the \u201cThin blue line\u201d. FBI Law\nEnforcement Bulletin (pp. 1\u20137), October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruiz, J.,\n& Morrow, E. (2005). Retiring the old centurion: Life\nafter a career in policing\u2014an exploratory study. International Journal of\nPublic Administration, 28(13\u201314), 1151\u20131186.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuohy, A., Knussen, C.,\n& Wrennall, M. J. (2005). Effects of age on symptoms of\nanxiety and depression in a sample of retired police officers. Psychology\nand Aging, 20(2), 202\u2013210.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lyndel Bates, Elise Sargeant and Christine Carney* This brief is based on the following paper published by the authors: Carney, C., Bates, L. & Sargeant, E. (2019) Exploring the impact of retirement on police officers wellbeing, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, DOI:10.1080\/15614263.2019.1658584. What problem does your research address? Why is this significant?Continue reading “Exploring the impact of retirement on police officers’ wellbeing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":1612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,49,39],"tags":[13,27],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-briefs","category-policing","category-workplaces","tag-policing","tag-workplaces"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Keiran Hardy","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/gci-insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/08\/shutterstock_1099156607-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNLK1-lR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1671,"url":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/gci-insights\/2019\/09\/02\/is-dissatisfaction-with-police-inevitable\/","url_meta":{"origin":1355,"position":0},"title":"Is dissatisfaction with police inevitable?","author":"Keiran Hardy","date":"September 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"By Elise Sargeant, Kristina Murphy and Natasha S. 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