Examination of stress and anxiety levels of police officers engaged in sports and those not engaged in sports (case of Kastamonu province)

This study is conducted using a survey-based screening model to examine the impact of the physical activity status of police officers working in the central district and districts of Kastamonu on their stress and anxiety levels. The population of the research consists of all police officers working in Kastamonu, and the sample consists of 226 personnel, including police officers and superiors actively serving in various units in the central district and districts of Kastamonu. Three data collection tools were used for participants: a Personal Information Form, the Perceived Stress Scale, which was validated and made reliable in Turkish by Yerlikaya and İnanç (2007), and the Beck Anxiety Scale, which was validated and made reliable in Turkish by Ulusoy et al. (2009). SPSS v.28 data program was used for data analysis. The normal distribution suitability of the data was assessed by determining the kurtosis and skewness values, which were found not to be within the ±2 range for anxiety levels. Therefore, parametric tests, namely t-test for binary data and ANOVA test for multiple data, were used for the analysis of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) values. Non-parametric tests, specifically Mann-Whitney U test for binary data and Kruskal-Wallis H test for multiple data, were used for the analysis of Beck Anxiety Scale (BAE) values due to their lack of normal distribution. In the study, participants were examined in terms of stress and anxiety based on variables such as age, gender, place of residence, marital status, educational status, years of service in the police profession, rank in the police profession, and physical activity status. When variables such as age, gender, marital status, educational status, and years of service in the police profession were examined, no significant difference was found in terms of stress and anxiety. Regarding the variables of place of residence and rank, although there was no significant difference in anxiety levels, a statistically significant difference was detected in perceived stress levels. The variable of physical activity, which constitutes the main focus of our research, did not show a statistically significant difference in terms of stress and anxiety when evaluated.