Mental Health in The Line of Duty: Psychological Pain, Depression Severity, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Help of Jail Officers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.07.09.09Keywords:
Correctional systems, Jail officers, Mental health, Occupational stress, Workforce resilienceAbstract
Mental health concerns among jail officers remain understudied despite the psychological demands and occupational stress associated with correctional work. To address this gap, this study examined psychological pain, depression severity, and attitudes toward seeking mental health services among jail officers from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology–Imus City Jail. Using a correlational research design, data were collected from 79 jail officers through standardized self-report instruments, namely the Psychache Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were employed to determine the levels and relationships among the variables. The majority of respondents reported low psychological pain (60.8%), although 39.2% experienced high psychological pain. Depression severity was generally minimal (62.0%), with fatigue and sleep disturbance identified as the most frequently reported symptoms, whereas suicidal ideation was the least reported. Participants also demonstrated a moderate willingness to seek mental health services. Psychological pain was significantly and positively associated with overall help-seeking attitudes (rs = .385, p < .001) and depression severity (rs = .554, p < .001). However, depression severity was not significantly associated with the help-seeking dimensions of psychological openness (rs = .204, p < .071) and help-seeking propensity (rs = −.052, p < .650), although it showed a weak but statistically significant association with indifference to stigma (rs = .239, p < .034). Overall, although most participants reported minimal to low levels of distress, a considerable proportion continued to experience elevated psychological pain.
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Data Availability Statement
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to confidentiality and ethical restrictions involving human participants but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and consultation with the study locale.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Kyle Russelle P. Paredes, Maria Celine Abaya, Irish T. Vargas, Diana Kelly F. Condez
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