Protectors or predators?
To examine the impact of police contact anxiety caused either by direct experience, or as a result of witnessing, or seeing a video of police use of violence in the past 30 days, the researchers created a “police contact anxiety” scale.
Respondents were asked six questions pertaining specifically to experiences during, or in anticipation of, police contact and its effects on anxiety levels.
For each of the six questions, participants rated the severity of anxiety on a scale of 0 (least severe) to 3 (most severe) for each exposure type. The final score had a potential range of 0-24.
Results showed police contact anxiety was moderately severe for all three exposure types with scores ranging from 13 to 14.
Ordinary least square regression analyses showed that, compared with unemployed participants, those who worked full time were less likely to have higher police contact anxiety as a result of seeing a video of police use of force (P < .05) – a finding Dr. Motley said was not surprising.
Employment, he noted, promotes individual self-efficacy, social participation, and mental health, which may provide a “buffer” to the effects of watching videos of police violence.
Dr. Motley noted that police officers “have been entrusted to serve and protect” the community, but “rarely face consequences when they use force against Black emergent adults; they’re rarely held accountable.”
These young Black adults “may perceive police officers as more of a threat to personal safety instead of a protector of it.”
Additional bivariate analyses showed that males had significantly higher scores than females for police contact anxiety because of witnessing police use of force.
This, too, was not surprising since males are exposed to more violence in general, said Dr. Motley.
It’s important to replicate the findings using a much larger and more diverse sample, he said. His next research project will be to collect data from a nationally representative sample of emerging adults across different ethnic groups and examining a range of different variables.
Commenting on the findings, Jeffrey Borenstein, MD, president and CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and editor in chief of Psychiatric News, called it “outstanding.”
“This is a very important issue,” said Dr. Borenstein, who moderated a press briefing that featured the study.
“We know anxiety is an extremely important condition and symptom, across the board for all groups, and often anxiety isn’t evaluated in the way that it needs to be. This is a great study that will lead to further research in this important area,” he added.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Motley and Dr. Borenstein have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.