THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND JOB STRESS OF POLICE CONSTABLES IN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT IN ANURADHAPURA DIVISION,SRI LANKA

Abstract

Police work is inherently stressful, leading to burnout and high turnover. Constables with high emotional intelligence can better manage their emotions in tense situations, leading to more empathetic and de-escalating interactions with the public. This can foster trust and cooperation within the community. By focusing on police constables in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, this study bridges gaps in the existing literature while enhancing our understanding of the unique challenges faced by law enforcement officers in a specific cultural context. Hence, the present study aimed to identify the relationship between emotional intelligence and job stress among police constables in the Anuradhapura division of the police department. Specifically, it seeks to determine how self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, as dimensions of emotional intelligence, correlate with job stress. This study employed a deductive approach and utilized a survey method for data collection. A monomethod with a cross-sectional time horizon was selected as the research choice. The unit of analysis was an individual police constable. The target population comprised 400 police constables from eight police stations in Anuradhapura. Astratified random sampling technique was employed to select a final sample size of 196, as determined by Krejcie and Morgan (1970). Hypotheses were formulated based on the existing literature and empirical observations. The Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted using SPSS version 21. The results indicate a statistically significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and job stress. Additionally, dimensions of emotional intelligence, such as self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management, were found to have a significant relationship with job stress. These findings suggest that various aspects of emotional intelligence are related to job stress among police constables in the Anuradhapura division.