Negatywne i pozytywne konsekwencje wtórnej ekspozycji na traumę u funkcjonariuszy policji
Negative and Positive Consequences of Secondary Trauma Exposure Among Police Officers

Summary/Abstract: Police officers belong to the occupational group that is particularly ex-posed to work related stress. As part of their official duties officers help people who have experienced traumatic situations in their lives. Long-term contact and helpingtrauma victims may on the one hand cause certain negative consequences in the formof secondary traumatic stress, and on the other, can be a source of positive changes,understood as secondary posttraumatic growth. The aim of the study is to determinethe severity of negative and positive posttraumatic changes among police officers ex-posed to secondary trauma and their connections with sociodemographic variables,workload and history of one’s own trauma. The research also aims to determine therelationship between the negative and the positive consequences of secondary expo-sure to trauma. 520 police officers on duty and in contact with trauma victims tookpart in the research. The study used a survey specifically developed for this purposeand two standard measurement tools, i.e.: the Secondary Traumatic Stress Inventoryand Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. The officers participating in the study displayedrelatively low intensity of negative consequences of exposure to secondary trauma,as well as varying levels of positive posttraumatic changes — 40% of respondentsshowed a low, 34% an average and 26% a high degree of secondary growth. Soci-odemographic variables and workload had little influence on the occurrence of bothnegative and positive consequences of secondary exposure to trauma. A factor thatsignificantly differentiated the severity of secondary stress and growth was their ownhistory of trauma. Moreover, the obtained results showed positive relations betweensecondary stress and secondary growth

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