Organizational, Operational and Individual Risk Factors of Mental Health Issues in a Belgian Police Officers’ Sample

This study investigated organizational, operational, and individual risk factors associated with mental health issues among Belgian police officers within a multifactorial framework. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted with 289 French-speaking officers. Participants completed self-report measures assessing post-traumatic stress disorder (PCL-5), burnout (MBI-GS), psychological distress including anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation (GHQ-28), substance use (ASSIST), police occupational stressors (PSQ), coping strategies (Brief-COPE), and resilience (CD-RISC-10). Results revealed substantial mental health concerns, including probable PTSD (11.42%), burnout (19.38%), and psychological distress (43.94%). Item-level analyses revealed substantial variability within each risk factors domain, with organizational stress mainly driven by administrative and management-related demands, operational stress by fatigue, health consequences, and work–life balance concerns, and individual factors characterized by a predominance of adaptive coping strategies. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) showed that organizational factors were the most associated with mental health outcomes, with both direct and indirect effects, while operational factors contributed mainly indirectly. Individual factors played a mediating role, with avoidant coping increasing risk and resilience and adaptive coping showing protective effects. These findings highlight the central role of chronic organizational stressors and support the implementation of organization-level prevention strategies.