The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources.

PURPOSE: Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, police officers are confronted with various novel challenges, which might place additional strain on officers. This mixed-method study investigated officers' strain over a three-month-period after the lockdown. METHODS: In an online survey, 2567 police officers (77% male) from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain participated at three measurement points per country in spring, 2020. Three-level growth curve models assessed changes in strain and its relation to stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness through training. To add context to the findings, free response answers about officers' main tasks, stressors, and crisis measures were coded inductively. RESULTS: On average, officers seemed to tolerate the pandemic with slight decreases in strain over time. Despite substantial variance between countries, 66% of the variance occurred between individuals. Sex, work experience, stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness significantly predicted strain. Risk of infection and deficient communication emerged as main stressors. Officers' reports allowed to derive implications for governmental, organizational, and individual coping strategies during pandemics. CONCLUSION: Preparing for a pandemic requires three primary paths: 1) enacting unambiguous laws and increasing public compliance through media communication, 2) being logistically prepared, and 3) improving stress regulation skills in police training.

Acute and Chronic Stress in Daily Police Service: A Three-Week N-of-1 Study.

On duty, police officers are exposed to a variety of acute, threatening stress situations and organizational demands. In line with the allostatic load model, the resulting acute and chronic stress might have tremendous consequences for police officers' work performance and psychological and physical health. To date, limited research has been conducted into the underlying biological, dynamic mechanisms of stress in police service. Therefore, this ecological momentary assessment study examined the associations of stress, mood and biological stress markers of a 28-year-old male police officer in a N-of-1 study over three weeks (90 data points). Four times a day (directly after waking up, 30 minutes later, 6 hours later, before going to bed), he answered questions about the perceived stress and mood using a smartphone application. With each data entry, he collected saliva samples for the later assessment of salivary cortisol (sCort) and alpha-amylase (sAA). In addition, data was collected after six police incidents during duty. sCort and sAA were not related to perceived stress in daily life and did not increase in police incidents. Regarding mood measures, deterioration of calmness, but not valence and energy was associated with perceived stress. The results suggest continued police service to constitute a major chronic stressor resulting in an inability to mount a proper response to further acute stress. As an indicator of allostatic load, psychological and biological hyporesponsivity in moments of stress may have negative consequences for police officers' health and behavior in critical situations that require optimal performance. Prospectively, this research design may also become relevant when evaluating the efficacy of individualized stress management interventions in police training.

Strategies for bridging the research-practice 'gap' in sport and exercise psychology / Estrategias para supercar la «Brecha» entre la investigación y la práctica en la psicología del deporte y del ejercicio físico

This paper explores the continuing research-practice gap that exists within sport and exercise psychology. It explores the reasons why this gap exists, and, crucially, considers solutions to reduce the magnitude and impact of the gap between researchers and practitioners within the field. In this narrative review, we explore what the consequences might be for the future of the field of sport and exercise psychology if solutions are not developed that are advantageous to both arms of the profession. The paper concludes by exploring strategies for closing the research-practice gap, including a renewed emphasis on practical theories, and the development of theories of practice that are research-informed and practitioner-led (AU)

Este artículo explora la persistente brecha entre investigación y la práctica profesional de la psicología del ejercicio y deporte. Este artículo explora las razones por las que existe esta brecha y, fundamentalmente, considera soluciones para reducir la magnitud y el impacto de la brecha entre investigadores y profesionales en el campo. En esta revisión narrativa, exploramos cuáles podrían ser las consecuencias para el futuro del campo del deporte y la psicología del ejercicio si no se desarrollan soluciones que sean ventajosas para ambos componentes de la profesión. El documento concluye explorando estrategias para cerrar la brecha investigación-práctica, con el énfasis en las teorías prácticas, y el desarrollo de teorías de la práctica que son investigador-informado y dirigido por el practicante (AU)

The effects of imagery training on fast isometric knee extensor torque development.

We hypothesized that imagery training would improve the fast onset of neuromuscular activation and thereby fast knee extensor isometric torque development. Forty young healthy participants, not involved in strength training, were assigned to one of four groups: physical training, imagery training, placebo training or control. The three training groups had three 15 min sessions per week for 4 weeks, with a 90 ° knee angle but were tested also at 120 °. At 90 ° knee angle, maximal torque increased (-8%) similarly in all three training groups. The torque-time integral (contractile impulse) over the first 40 ms after torque onset (TTI40) increased (P < 0.05) after physical training (by -100%), but only at 90 °. This increase was significantly different from the delta values (change pre to post) in the control and placebo groups, whereas delta values in the imagery group were similar to those in the placebo group. The increases in TTI40 following physical training were related (r (2) = 0.81, P < 0.05) to significant increases of knee extensor rectified surface EMG at torque onset (EMG40). In conclusion, only physical training led to a knee angle specific increase of contractile impulse that was significantly different from placebo and controls and that was related to improved onset of neuromuscular activation.