Social support and personality among male police officers in Singapore

This study examines the relationship between perceived social support and personality among police officers from Singapore's three main ethnic groups, Chinese, Indians, and Malays. Perceived social support was measured by the short version of the Social Support Questionnaire [SSQ: Sarason, Sara...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and individual differences 2004, Vol.36 (1), p.109-123
Main Authors: Tong, Eddie M.W, Bishop, George D, Diong, Siew Maan, Enkelmann, Hwee Chong, Why, Yong Peng, Ang, Jansen, Khader, Majeed
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Ethnic differences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Men
NEO PI-R
Perceived social support
Personality
Personality traits
Personality. Affectivity
Police officers
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Singapore
Social support
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study examines the relationship between perceived social support and personality among police officers from Singapore's three main ethnic groups, Chinese, Indians, and Malays. Perceived social support was measured by the short version of the Social Support Questionnaire [SSQ: Sarason, Sarason, Shearin, & Pierce (1987) and personality was assessed by the NEO PI-R. Of the three ethnic groups Chinese participants reported the largest number of social supports but the lowest satisfaction with that support. Regression analyses revealed that none of the NEO PI-R domains stood out as independent predictors of Satisfaction with Social Support (SSS) whereas Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Openness contributed independently to Number of Social Supports (SSN). In addition, SSN was divided into two components: Number of Social Supports from Family (SSN-fm) and Number of Social Supports from Others (SSN-o). Regression analyses showed Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to be independent predictors of SSN-fm and Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Openness to be independent predictors of SSN-o. In addition, the relationships were found to be equally descriptive of the three ethnic groups. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.
ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00072-2