International Congress Series 1294 (2006) 175 – 178

www.ics-elsevier.com

The factor affecting job stress and psychosocial

well-being of prison officers
Jung-Wan Koo a,b,*, Hyun-Jung Kim a
a
Graduate School of Public Health, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
b
Department of Preventive Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea

Abstract. This study was to find out the factors affecting job stress and psychosocial well-being of
the prison officers. This study was performed on 217 prison officers working in prison from
February 2005 with questionnaires which were composed of general characteristics, job character-
istics, stress factors and psychosocial well-being. The mean score of job stress and psychosocial
well-being of prison officers were 54.0 and 26.0, respectfully. The job stress score was higher in the
group of medical treatment within 1year, shift work and direct contact with the prisoners. The
psychosocial well-being score was higher in the group of medical treatment within 1year, shift work,
lower grade and direct contact with the prisoners. As a result of multiple regression analysis, job
stress was significantly affected by experience of medical treatment within 1 year and department of
direct contact with prisoners. As a result of multiple regression analysis, psychosocial well-being was
significantly affected by experience of medical treatment within 1 year, grade and department of
direct contact with prisoners. Job stress and psychosocial well-being of prison officers were closely
related to the experience of medical treatment, shift work and direct contact with prisoners.
Therefore, it suggests that prison officers need to be provided with the health promotion program and
the employment assistance program. D 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Prison officer; Job stress; Psychosocial well-being

1. Introduction
The prison officers are working in the inferior work conditions. Burdensome task,
excessive work hours, danger of work, irregular shift work and propagation of diseases from
prisoners make the prison officers harmful to maintain their health. The prison officers are

* Corresponding author. #62 Youido-dong, Youngdungpo-gu, Seoul, 150-713, South Korea. Tel.: +82 2 3779
1402; fax: +82 2 782 6017.
E-mail address: jwkoo@catholic.ac.kr (J.-W. Koo).

0531-5131/ D 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.ics.2006.02.062
176 J.-W. Koo, H.-J. Kim / International Congress Series 1294 (2006) 175–178

facing lots of physical and mental health problems because of many chances to get exposed to
the diseases due to the lifestyle in the group and especially of the low-level culture in the jail.
Job-related stress is difficult to control due to individual life accidents, and it gets the
negative professionalism. Also, various stresses in the job affect the decline of
productivity, sleep disturbance, anxiety and somatization reaction. Job characteristic as a
job stressor is different by occupation, and it affects the level of job stress very much [1]. It
is desired that solution plan of job stress grope in process tasking the job. Shift work
especially night work affects the mental and psychological health of the workers, and it
could cause side effects such as gastric discomforts, vascular disorders, sleep disorders,
stress disorder, overuse of drugs and alcohols and decline of the immune function [2]. The
study was investigated to find out the factors affecting job stress and psychosocial well-
being of the prison officers according to general and job characteristics.

2. Methods and subjects

The subjects were 250 prison officers located at Kyeong-Sang provinces, Korea. We
distributed 250 questionnaires and collected 217 questionnaires. The questionnaires
consisted of general characteristics, job characteristics, job stressors and psychosocial
well-being (job stress reactions). General characteristics included sex, age, marital status,
religion, education and medical treatment within 1 year. Job characteristics included shift
work, work period, social grade and relation to prisoners. We used Korean job stress
measurement tools which looked into job stressors and evaluated the level of job stress for
workers. Job stressors included job decision latitude (5 items), physical environment (3
items), reward imbalance (6 items), occupational organization (7 items), job insecurity (6
items), job demand (8 items), occupational culture (4 items) and interpersonal conflict (4
items). Job stress reactions were composed of the Korean psychosocial well-being index

Table 1
General and job characteristics of the subjects
Variables Category N %
Age (years) 20–29 37 17.1
30–39 135 62.2
z40 45 20.7
Marital status Married 158 72.8
Single 59 27.2
Medical treatment Yes 110 50.7
No 107 49.3
Shift work Yes 158 72.8
No 59 27.2
Work duration (years) V1 41 18.9
2–5 70 32.3
6–10 38 17.5
z11 68 31.3
Work grade 9 105 48.4
8 70 32.3
V7 42 19.4
Relation to prisoner Direct contact 185 85.3
Non-direct contact 32 14.7
 J.-W. Koo, H.-J. Kim / International Congress Series 1294 (2006) 175–178 177

Table 2
Mean score of job stress and psychosocial well-being
Factor Mean S.D.
Job stress Job decision latitude 61.0 17.0
Physical environment 60.8 17.1
Reward imbalance 57.2 17.8
Occupational organization 56.4 15.6
Job insecurity 52.3 15.1
Job demand 51.1 13.8
Occupational culture 49.0 15.7
Interpersonal conflict 44.2 22.3
Total 54.0 10.5
Psychosocial well-being score 26.0 9.6

short form (18 items). We analyzed the data using the SPSS version 12.0. The multiple
regression analysis was used to investigate the factors affecting job stress and psychosocial
well-being of the prison officers.

3. Results
3.1. The general and job characteristics of the subjects
The general and job characteristics of 217 subjects were shown in Table 1.
3.2. Health status of job stress by stress subgroup and psychosocial well-being
The mean score of total job stress was 54.0, and that of psychosocial well-being was
26.0. The range of job stress by subgroup was 44.2 to 61.0, the mean score of job decision
latitude was the highest, 61.0, physical environment 60.8, reward imbalance 57.2,
occupational organization 56.4 as can be seen in Table 2.
3.3. The effect of general and job characteristics on the job stress
The result of multiple regression analysis of the job stress by general and job
characteristics showed that medical treatment within 1 year and relation to prisoners were
significant variables and model R 2 was 0.09 (Table 3). Job stress was higher in the group
who experienced medical treatment within 1 year and in the group which has direct contact
with the prisoners.
3.4. The effect of general and job characteristics on the psychosocial well-being
The result of multiple regression analysis of the psychosocial well-being by general and
job characteristics showed that medical treatment, work grade and relation with prisoners
were significant variables and model R 2 was 0.15 (Table 4). The score of psychosocial

Table 3
The result of multiple regression analysis of the job stress by general and job characteristics
Variables b Partial R 2 Model R 2 F-value P-value
Medical treatment (yes) 0.209 0.049 0.049 11.042 0.002*
Relation to prisoner (direct contact) 0.203 0.041 0.090 9.693 0.002*
* P V 0.05.
178 J.-W. Koo, H.-J. Kim / International Congress Series 1294 (2006) 175–178

Table 4
The result of multiple regression analysis of the psychosocial well-being by general and job characteristics
Variables b Partial R 2 Model R 2 F-value P-value
Medical treatment (yes) 0.316 0.103 0.103 24.669 0.000***
Work grade 0.157 0.029 0.132 7.133 0.014*
Relation to prisoner (direct contact) 0.138 0.019 0.151 4.744 0.031*
* P V 0.05.
*** P V 0.001.

well-being was higher in the group who experienced medical treatment within 1year, the 9
grade of work grade, and the direct contact with prisoners.
4. Discussion
The number people who complained mental problems such as depression, anxiety
disorder, drug abuse, sleep disturbance, tension headache and digestive disorder tend to
increase gradually. Main factors of job stress by subgroup were job decision latitude,
physical environment, reward imbalance and occupational organization in order. The job
stress of shift workers was very high, and it showed similar results in other studies. People
who have experienced medical treatment within 1 year and who have directly contacted with
prisoners had experienced high job stress. The prison officers who have been directly
contacted with prisoners have more job stress due to the threat possibility of physical injuries
from prisoners. The score of psychosocial well-being was high because of irregular sleep
patterns and physical rhythm change in shift workers. People who have low work grade and
have been directly contacted with prisoners had higher score of psychosocial well-being.
This result tells us that the score of psychosocial well-being is high in the low grade because
there is the bottleneck due to immaturity of job accomplishment. Therefore the score of job
stress and psychosocial well-being was high in the people who have directly contacted with
prisoners because of inadequate physical environment. In many studies, researchers reported
that workers who have life threats or work in the high possibility of injury complained of
mental and physical problems such as chronic anxiety, suspense and depression [3–6].
Whether it is positive or negative, the health status of prison officers greatly affects to
accomplish their job. The better the job design is, the more positively changed is the mental
health level such as languor, depression, anger and somatization. It is necessary that we
encourage health promotion behavior to manage the effective job stress of prison officers,
and we consider the counterplan and the system to improve the ties with prisoners.
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