Suicidal Ideation, Depressive Symptoms and Trait Anxiety in Civil Guards: A Psychosocial Analysis

Abstract The objective of this research was to analyze the incidence of suicidal ideation (SI), depressive symptoms (DS), and trait anxiety (TA), in a group of Spanish civil guards considering sociodemographic factors. The sample consisted of 305 active professionals of both sexes (28.9% women and 71.1% men) from different regions of Spain, aged between 25 and 64 ( M = 45.66 years, SD = 8.52). To analyze the data, we used descriptive analysis (percentages, M, and SD ) and a multivariate factorial design (2 × 2 × 2 MANOVA ), using sex, age, and educational level as independent variables. Also, univariate analyses of variance were carried out to explore significant interactions and main effects. The prevalence obtained in SI, DS, and TA was higher than those observed in the general population. Levels detected of SI, DS and TA were mostly low or moderate. Significant differences depending on sex were found for SI (men scoring higher) and, based on educational level, in SI and TA (lower educational level scoring higher).Three interactions were found for DS. In short, being a civil guard woman without higher education and between 45–64 years is more likely to develop DS. The present study provides significant information about a little-explored topic. Most of the previous work has been performed with samples of police officers and in other countries, so this research provides novel and relevant content for preventing these types of psychological problems and for the development of future research in the Civil Guard context.