| dc.description.abstract | Stress is a major global health challenge affecting the well-being of service providers
especially those working in the human service sectors like; police officers, teachers, health care
providers and media specialists. This study was prompted by emerging information from
studies that, stress is a silent killer that affects the health of service providers leading to;
mental, physical, and emotional disorders. In Kenya and Kisumu County in particular studies
on occupational stress among police constables are scanty. This study investigated the level of
occupational stress, causes, effects and coping strategies among police constables in Kisumu
County. The study adopted the Causal Comparative ex-post facto research design. The target
population was 451 police constables and 12 Officers Commanding Stations in the four police
divisions in Kisumu County. Stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 105
police constables and 4 Officers Commanding Station (OCS). The data was collected using a
Police Constable Questionnaire and an Officer Commanding Station Interview Schedule. The
instruments were validated by experts while reliability was estimated by use of Cronbach
Alpha method for internal consistency. The questionnaire yielded a reliability coefficient of
0.88. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained. Data was analyzed using Statistical
Package for Social Sciences for Windows (Version 20). Descriptive statistics (frequencies,
percentages, means and Standard Deviation) and inferential statistical (Chi-Square and
Pearson‟s Moment Correlation Coefficient) were used in data analysis. Findings were
presented in statistical tables, frequency tables, cross tabulations, and graphics. The key
findings of the study were that: police constables in Kisumu County were experiencing
occupational stress. Working environment, work overload and work schedule were causes of
occupational stress. The effects of occupational stress adversely affected the police constables.
The stress mitigation strategies employed by the Police Constables were not effective. The study
recommends that: Police service commission should develop a policy on stress management to
guide the induction, operations and counselling of Police Constables on their day to day duties | en_US |
