Death Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress of PNP Operatives: Basis for Comprehensive Stress Management Program

Abstract

The study primarily aims to explore the relationship between the level of death anxiety and the severity of post-traumatic stress of male police operatives under the Philippine National Police (PNP), specifically the members of the Special Action Force.

A purposive sampling technique was used to select and gather data from 100 PNP operatives assigned to the 83rd Special Action Company. Two standardized tests, namely, the Revised Death Anxiety Scale and the Post-Traumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5, were administered to respondents to assess their level of death anxiety and severity of post-traumatic stress.

An overall death anxiety of PNP operatives is interpreted as moderate, suggesting significant apprehension or fear related to death due to the nature of their profession, exposing them to possible life-threatening situations. Whereas the post-traumatic stress of PNP operatives is categorized as very low, revealing minimal or the absence of post-traumatic stress symptoms to some.

Drawing from the findings, the study concluded a ‘weak’ positive yet significant relationship between the two variables (ρ=0.31, p=0.002), suggesting that post-traumatic stress increases as death anxiety increases. Still, the degree of the relationship is not very strong. This indicates that the increased post-traumatic stress of PNP operatives with high death anxiety levels is on a case-by-case basis, considering their different encounters with stressful or disturbing occurrences during operations, resilience levels, coping mechanisms, and available resources.

Consequently, the results of the study pave the way for developing the proposed Comprehensive Stress Management Program to address the identified mortality concerns and post-traumatic stress symptoms of PNP operatives.