ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to explore the perceived stress levels and the overall Filipino coping strategies of the jail officers of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. Utilizing the G*Power application to determine the number of respondents and purposeful sampling for the qualitative phase, a total of 103 respondents were gathered from five (5) selected jails within the National Capital Region and ten (10) participants for the qualitative phase. Using the overall mean and Pearson Correlation Coefficient, results from the quantitative phase indicated that the overall Filipino coping strategy of the jail officers was Religiosity and the perceived stress was at a moderate level. Furthermore, there was no significant relationship between the overall coping strategy and the perceived stress levels. For the qualitative aspect, the themes emerged were Expectation and Realities of the Career, Appraising Stress, Primary Appraisal of Stress/Internal and External Demands, Primary Appraisal of Stress, Knowledge on Coping Mechanisms, Secondary Appraisal, Beyond/Breaking Free from the Prisons of Stress. In conclusion, Religiosity was the overall Filipino coping strategy of the jail officers and their perceived stress levels was at a moderate level. As an output of the study, a mental health program was proposed for the jail officers.
Keywords: stress, coping strategies, jail officers
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