Linking Media Distortion to Stress: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Chinese Police Officers

• In Event: Procedural Justice, Media, and Technology in Chinese Policing (Sponsored by Division of Policing)

Abstract

Although the media’s influences on criminal justice practitioners’ attitudes and behaviors have been noted in the literature, few studies have empirically tested the connections between the perception of self-media (i.e., independently operated social media accounts) reports and police stress. This paper examines the direct and indirect effects of perceived self-media distortion on police stress through adjusting behaviors. Using survey data collected from 1,900 police officers in a northern Chinese province, we test a moderated mediation model featuring the moderating effect of perceived self-legitimacy on the relationships between perceived self-media distortion and stress. We found that perceived self-media distortion is connected to officers’ stress both directly and indirectly via adjusting behaviors. In addition, the positive relationship between perceived distortion and adjustment is weaker among officers with greater perception of self-legitimacy, whereas the positive association between adjustment and stress is stronger among those with higher levels of perceived self-legitimacy. The findings are critical for understanding officer stress and self-legitimacy, especially during a time in which police face heightened public scrutiny and agencies are experiencing significant turnover and retention concerns. Additionally, we examine the effects of perceived self-media distortion in a non-Western country, expanding the global evidence on police stress and legitimacy.

Authors

• Stephanie Ha, University of Delaware

• Yuning Wu, Wayne State University