Putative risk and resilience factors for predicting mental health among Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the first year of service

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) cadets complete the Cadet Training Program with lower putative risk and greater self-perceived resilience than young adults in the general population, implicating occupational stressors as possible risk factors for mental health disorders in RCMP officers. The current study assessed for changes in putative risk and resilience factors among RCMP officers after their first year of service (i.e. from pre-deployment to 1-year follow-up). Participants (n = 181; 72.8% men) completed self-report measures of several putative risk variables (i.e. anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, illness and injury sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, pain anxiety, state anger) and self-perceived resilience at 1-year follow-up. Participants’ scores were compared to their respective pre-deployment scores and to young adult control samples. At 1-year follow-up, RCMP officers scored statistically significantly (ps < .05) higher on global anxiety sensitivity, the cognitive and social domains of anxiety sensitivity, illness sensitivity, and state anger (ds = 0.16–0.35) than they did as cadets at pre-deployment; however, scores on all putative risk variables remained statistically significantly lower (ps < .01; ds = 0.25–1.25), and self-perceived resilience remained statistically significantly higher (p < .01; d = 0.82), compared to young adult general population norms. Women and female participants scored statistically significantly lower than men and male participants, respectively, on self-perceived resilience (ds = 0.63 and 0.57; ps < .05). Neither gender nor sex moderated changes in putative risk and resilience scores from pre-deployment to 1-year follow-up. The current results suggest that occupational stressors may influence individual putative risk and resilience factors, which in turn impact RCMP officers’ risk of developing mental health challenges.