• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2013

This study is proposed to suggest the preventing methods for correctional officer's mental health problems. For this purpose, Delphi method was used and the study panel was composed of finally 10 people. Total Delphi process was performed for 4 times and six qualified researchers & skilled correctional officers participated in developing Delphi questionnaires. As the main results, major correctional officer's mental health problems are PTSD(post traumatic stress disorder), job stress, suicide witnessing, stress from violent accidents, and anger by related with their own work. All of these problems must need to be managed. Besides, the most effective preventing method for correctional officer's mental health problem is providing regular counsels & treatments with a psychiatrist or the fully qualified experts. The mental health promotion strategies for correctional officers must be settled for providing appropriate mental health services to them.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.47-58
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• 2013

Objectives: Everyday correctional officers confront with so many criminals, so this situation could be a bad environment on correctional officer's mental health. But the study about their mental health status and related factors have rarely been focused, and besides, the actual mental health conditions of them have also been rarely investigated. Consequently, this study aimed to identify mental health status and related factors of correctional officers. Methods: Data were collected from July 10 to August 25, 2012. The Participants included 1,496 correctional officers in 50 correctional facilities. Results: The risk factors of mental health problems were living in urban region, 40 ages group, less experience in correctional field, unmarried marital status & not living with their spouse, over nine hours contact with criminals and so forth. On the other hand, stress coping methods were not related with socioeconomic and other factors. Conclusions: Lessening working hours or contact hours with criminals, providing a risk-group management for those who have many risk factors, making self-support group will be helpful to manage or promote their mental health status. Besides, employee assistance programs should be developed such as job stress management methods or counselling communication skills.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.73-85
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the adaptation process of correctional officers' job stress. Methods: Participants collected were fourteen officers who had experienced the adaptation process of job stress. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews until the point of theoretical saturation from May to August, 2017. Transcribed interview contents were analyzed using Corbin and Strauss' grounded theory method. Results: A total of 98 concepts, 27 subcategories, and 10 categories were identified through the open coding. As a result of axial coding based on the paradigm model, the job stress adaptation process centering phenomenon of correctional officers was revealed as 'repeat-mark hardening', and the core category was extracted as 'endurance in hardening' consisting of a three-step process: enduring, understanding prisoner management procedures, and rebuilding. The rebuilding was considered as the key phase to escape the repeat-mark hardening and the participants utilized various strategies such as finding fun elsewhere, restoring confidence, accepting values of the prison officer in this phase. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the adaptation process of correctional officers' job stress can be a process that endurance the hardening. Therefore, it is necessary to develop systematic practical education and vocational motivation programs.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.167-173
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• 2021

Background: Correctional officers (COs) experience elevated rates of mental and physical ill-health as compared with other general industry and public safety occupations. The purpose of this study was to investigate demographic, mental health, job tenure, and work-family characteristics and their prospective association to burnout within and between jail officers during one year of new employment. Methods: In 2016, newly hired jail officers (N = 144) completed self-reported surveys across four time points in a one-year prospective study at a Midwestern United States urban jail. Linear mixed-effects and growth modeling examined how work-family conflict (W-FC) and depressive symptoms relate to perceptions of burnout over time. Results: Jail officer burnout increased and was related to rises in W-FC and depression symptoms. Within-person variance for W-FC (B_pooled = .52, p < .001) and depression symptoms (B_pooled = .06, p < .01) were significant predictors of burnout. Less time on the job remained a significant predictor of burnout across all analyses (B_pooled = .03, p < .001). Conclusions: Results from this study indicate that burnout increased during the first year of new employment; and increased W-FC, higher depression, and brief tenure were associated with burnout among jail COs. Future study of correctional workplace health is needed to identify tailored, multilevel interventions that address burnout and W-FC prevention and early intervention among COs.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.21-28
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• 2021

This study examines factors affecting correction officer's preference toward institute for forensic psychiatric. The data were collected from the correction officers who worked at the six correctional facilities in 2019. Binary logistic regression was used to find the factors on the officer's preference. The result showed that the correction officers had their own preference toward prison for forensic psychiatric, and the preference was positively related to the age of the officer, work experience at the mental health center, mentally-ill prisoner's fighting as the rule-violation in prison, refusal of medical treatment, and lack of laws and regulations for the mentally-ill prisoners. In contrast, there was a negative relationship between the officer's rank and the preference for forensic psychiatric. More work needs to be done in the future research to collect more samples and include a broader ranger of variables than now.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.560-569
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• 2019

This study examined the factors influencing the burnout of correctional workers via a survey conducted in February 2018 for the employees working at the Korea Rehabilitation Agency. The final analysis used data from 290 survey responses. In order to investigate the factors affecting burnout, personal and job-related characteristics, job stress, and interpersonal stress factors were analysed. For the analysis, Baslach burnout scale, Korean occupational stress scale (KOSS), Korean interpersonal relationship stress (KIRS), descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were all used. The correlation analysis showed statistically significant relationships between the factors(p<.01). From the regression analysis results, the influences of job stress (job demand ${\beta}=.308$, p<.001, degree of autonomy ${\beta}=.124$, p<.001, relationship conflict ${\beta}=.169$, p<.001) and interpersonal stress (relationships with supervisors ${\beta}=.402$, p<.001, relationships with clients ${\beta}=.155$, p<.01) were stronger than job-related characteristics (employment type, working hours, working years) and personal characteristics (gender ${\beta}=.173$, p<.01). Although personal and job-related characteristics influence the workers' burnout, levels of job stress and interpersonal stress affect burnout levels more strongly. Based on the study results, further study and suggestions for reducing the burnout of the correctional workers were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.221-230
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between job stress, life satisfaction, burnout, and self-compassion. A survey was conducted in February 2018 for employees working at the Korea Legal Protection and Welfare Agency, and 213 data were included in the final analysis. A structural model was developed to examine the relationships between the variables used in this study, and the model-fit and mediating effects of the developed model were examined using SPSS and AMOS. For this study, the Korean occupational stress scale, life satisfaction scale, Maslach burnout inventory, and Korean self-compassion scale were used. We found that self-compassion is fully mediated between job stress and life satisfaction and between job stress and burnout. Also, life satisfaction is partially mediated between self-compassion and burnout. These results mean that self-compassion has significant effects on job stress, life satisfaction, and burnout. In particular, the mediating effect of self-compassion shows the vicious cycle of high job stress - low self-compassion - low life satisfaction - high burnout. Based on these results, the future implications of program development based on self-compassion strategies were discussed in order for workers in correctional facilities to decrease job stress and burnout and increase life satisfaction.