Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 7 no. 9 (2026)

Mental Health In The Line Of Duty: Psychological Pain, Depression Severity, And Attitudes Toward Seeking Help Of Jail Officers

Kyle Russelle P. Paredes | Maria Celine Abaya | Irish T. Vargas | Diana Kelly F. Condez

Discipline: Applied Psychology

 

Abstract:

Mental health concerns among jail officers remain understudied de-spite the psychological demands and occupational stress associated with correctional work. To address this gap, this study examined psy-chological pain, depression severity, and attitudes toward seeking mental health services among jail officers from the Bureau of Jail Man-agement and Penology–Imus City Jail. Using a correlational research design, data were collected from 79 jail officers through standardized self-report instruments, namely the Psychache Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services. Descriptive and inferential statistical anal-yses were employed to determine the levels and relationships among the variables. The majority of respondents reported low psychologi-cal pain (60.8%), although 39.2% experienced high psychological pain. Depression severity was generally minimal (62.0%), with fa-tigue and sleep disturbance identified as the most frequently reported symptoms, whereas suicidal ideation was the least reported. Partici-pants also demonstrated a moderate willingness to seek mental health services. Psychological pain was significantly and positively as-sociated with overall help-seeking attitudes (rs = .385, p < .001) and depression severity (rs = .554, p < .001). However, depression sever-ity was not significantly associated with the help-seeking dimensions of psychological openness (rs = .204, p < .071) and help-seeking pro-pensity (rs = −.052, p < .650), although it showed a weak but statisti-cally significant association with indifference to stigma (rs = .239, p < .034). Overall, although most participants reported minimal to low levels of distress, a considerable proportion continued to experience elevated psychological pain. These results underscore the importance of strengthening institutional mental health support systems, occupa-tional stress management initiatives, and workforce resilience pro-grams within correctional settings to promote personnel well-being and sustain effective correctional services.



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