Salutogenic profile of police trainees on entry into the profession

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the salutogenic (wellbeing) profile of South African police trainees on entry into the profession. Participants were police trainees with an average age of 26 years enrolled for basic training in a police college. Sample sizes ranged between 275 and 499 depending on the questionnaire. The participants completed six questionnaires, namely Orientation to Life Questionnaire (Antonovsky, 1987) Locus of Control Inventory (Schepers, 1999), Self Efficacy Scale (Bandura, 1997), Personal Views Survey (Kobasa, 1979), Potency Scale (Ben-Sira, 1985) and the Self-Control Schedule (Rosenbaum, 1990). The results indicated the trainees’ abilities in logical reasoning, determination, independence, confidence, self control and influence that could be resources to support their wellbeing. The police trainees scored above average on most of the constructs, thereby suggesting their readiness to deal with the stressful occupation they were being trained for. Furthermore, the police trainees demonstrated a comparable or more positive salutogenic profile than those obtained in other South African studies.