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This scoping review explores what is currently understood about how masculinity norms interplay with loneliness and social connectedness among men in a Western context. Human beings inherently need social connections, and this review particularly addresses how traditional masculinity norms—emphasizing independence, emotional stoicism, and pain endurance—can increase vulnerability to loneliness and insufficient social connections. The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews and systematically assessed the literature published between September 2013 and September 2023. Initial literature searches were conducted using multiple databases, including EBSCO and PubMed. Of the 1,730 articles identified, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria and were quality assessed. Results show that men often formed social connections through productive activities. Still, these connections were restricted by conflicting masculine ideals such as self-reliance, which could be prioritized over social and emotional support. Masculine bonds were often formed and strengthened through collectively rejecting diversity. Nevertheless, there were some narratives where participants attempted to redefine masculinity to access permission to care and connect. This review highlights the urgent need for cultural and societal reevaluation of gender norms to support men’s social connectedness. This shift could reduce stigma around emotional vulnerability and in turn men’s opportunities for health and well-being.

This discussion paper aimed to explore various cross-disciplinary approaches (i.e., multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary, and post-disciplinary) employed in occupational science research. By describing how these approaches are applied in sample studies, our discussion paper shows that taking a cross-disciplinary approach can broaden understandings of complex societal issues related to health, well-being, and human behaviour. Although our paper is data-free and non-systematic, we present our reflections to encourage discussion on the topic of cross-disciplinary approaches. We also want to open the dialogue for occupational scientists to consciously choose cross-disciplinary approaches in their occupational science work. This will enhance the potential for groundbreaking and impactful processes and outcomes both in research and practice.

Background: The concept of an occupational pattern in occupational therapy and occupational science has evolved with varying definitions, ranging from activity patterns to patterns of daily occupation.AimsThis study aimed to explore the concept of occupational pattern, develop an updated definition of the concept, and theoretically validate the concept’s definition.

Method: Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method was used, where both theoretical frameworks and peer-reviewed scientific literature were searched and synthesized to clarify and define the concept. Furthermore, seven occupational therapists theoretically validated the concept.

Findings: The analysis included forty-nine references from various research contexts and theoretical perspectives. The synthesis yielded a conceptualization of the concept of occupational pattern, outlining it into three overarching categories: ‘content in an individual’s occupational pattern’, ‘designing an occupational pattern’, and ‘balancing the occupational pattern’.

Implications: An updated operational definition of the multifaceted concept of an occupational pattern now exists, with practical implications for enhancing the education of occupational therapy students and guiding the utilization of the concept. Moreover, it holds significance for instrument development and outcome measurement in research; especially in lifestyle intervention studies within the field of occupational therapy.

Background: The police profession is a high-strain and high-risk profession, sometimes resulting in poor physical, mental and social health. This systematic review aims to identify and describe crucial areas for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle among patrolling police officers in Europe, an area not previously studied.

Methods: The review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. A protocol was published and registered with PROSPERO beforehand. Searches were carried out in eight databases. Two independent authors screened articles and critically appraised the included studies. A narrative synthesis was conducted to analyse the results. The review’s total body of evidence was assessed with GRADE-CERQaul.

Results: A total of 16 articles were located, representing 13 studies. Barriers and resources for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle were linked to a theoretical framework of life balance. Subsequently, a linkage model was created to explain different aspects of patrolling police officers’ life balance and its relation to health (physical, social and mental).

Conclusions: Several crucial areas for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle were found and described, indicating that patrolling officers’ working life affects their possibilities of living a balanced lifestyle, which might disturb different aspects of health, depending on which aspect is compromised.

Previous research has widely recognized the challenges uniformed police officers face in their working lives. However, little is known about the overall lifestyles of police officers, including what they do in private life. We interviewed 17 officers and used reflexive thematic analysis to explore their experiences. The study sheds light on how uniformed police officers navigate the intersection between their private and professional lives, as well as how their professional role impacts their day-to-day doings and private life roles. The key findings relate to how the demands of their professional role impact their private life, such as the profession becoming a way of life. Furthermore, they highlight the challenges of avoiding certain environments where they might be recognized as police officers. It also entails balancing energy levels in work and private life, as well as how their profession’s unpredictability affects their daily routines and roles. The findings also show how their personal choices in private life are frequently influenced by their professional role. The study’s findings have theoretical as well as practical implications, contributing to a better understanding of uniformed police officers’ challenges and resources for a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

Introduction: Being a frontline police officer is regarded to be one of the most high-strain professions in the world, encompassing physical, emotional and cognitive stressors. These stressors may cause ill health, physically, mentally and socially, impacting both professional and private life roles and everyday activities. Despite this, there has been limited consideration of the broader complexities of police officers’ lifestyles. Thus, the primary aim of this thesis was to identify health promoters and health challenges within the lifestyles of frontline police officers using a transactional perspective. The secondary aim was to translate these findings into the initial developmental stages of an instrument targeting critical areas of police officers’ lifestyles to foster health sustainability.

Method: The thesis includes four studies. In Study I, a method for scoping reviews was used when gathering data from previously conducted studies within Europe. Studies II and III were qualitative studies using in-depth interviews. In Study II a reflexive thematic analysis was used, whereas in Study III qualitative content analysis was utilized. Study IV builds on data from the other studies. During the early development process of the instrument focus groups, cognitive interviewing methods and a content validity approach were undertaken.

Findings: Altogether, the findings offer insights into how police officers’ lifecontexts, roles and everyday activities transact to become their unique lifestyles. In Study I the life contexts affecting police officers’ lives and health were mapped. It was concluded that research on police officers’ private lives is limited in Europe, despite contextual and environmental influences on their lives and health. In Studies II and III it was found that balancing work with private-life activities and roles included health challenges and resources. The findings relate to balancing risk and violence with vigilance in private life, societal attitudes with the police identity, work with healthy routines and habits, and unpredictability with stability. Study IV took initial steps towards crafting a self-reflection instrument targeting the essential conditions for living a sustainable and healthy lifestyle asa police officer.

Conclusion: This thesis illuminates the complex interplay of factors that definethe unique lifestyles of police officers, influenced by their life contexts, roles, and everyday activities. It highlights the importance of both organizational strategies and police officers utilizing health-promoting strategies in maintaining asustainable lifestyle essential for fostering health sustainability. In the context of societal challenges and the need for a strong police force, maintaining police officers’ health sustainability is crucial for the benefit of both the Police Authority and society.

Introduktion: Att vara polis i yttre tjänst anses vara ett av de mest påfrestande yrkena i världen, med avseende på de fysiska, emotionella och kognitiva stressfaktorer som yrket innebär. Dessa stressorer kan leda till ohälsa, både fysiskt, mentalt och socialt, vilket kan påverka både professionella och privata roller och vardagsaktiviteter. Dock har väldigt lite gjorts för att närma sig den komplexitet som finns gällande polisers livsstil. Därför var det primära syftet med avhandlingen att identifiera hälsopromotorer och hälsoutmaningar gällande livsstil hos poliser i yttre tjänst, utifrån ett transaktionellt perspektiv. Det sekundära syftet var att översätta dessa fynd till de inledande stegen i utvecklingen av ett instrument, som fokuserar på kritiska områden avseende polisers livsstil för att främja hållbarhet gällande deras hälsa.

Metod: Avhandlingen omfattar fyra studier. I Studie I användes en metod för översiktsstudier där data samlades från tidigare genomförda studier i Europa. Studierna II-III var kvalitativa studier med djupintervjuer. I Studie II användes en reflexiv tematisk analys, medan kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes i Studie III. Studie IV bygger på data från övriga studier. Under de första faserna i utvecklingen av instrumentet användes fokusgrupper, kognitiva intervjuer och en innehållsvalideringsmetod.

Resultat: Sammantaget ger resultaten insikt i hur polisers livskontexter, roller och aktiviteter växelverkar för att bli deras unika livsstilar. I Studie I kartlades hur polisernas livskontexter påverkar deras liv och hälsa. Slutsatsen var att forskning om polisers privata liv är begränsad i Europa, trots den påverkan som kontext och miljö har på deras liv och hälsa. I Studierna II och III upptäcktes att balansen mellan polisernas arbete, samt aktiviteter och roller i privatlivet innebar både utmaningar och resurser för hälsan. Resultaten är kopplade till hur de balanserar risk och våld med vaksamhet i privatlivet, samhällets attityder med polisidentiteten, sitt arbete med hälsosamma rutiner och vanor, samt oförutsägbarhet med stabilitet. I Studie IV togs de initiala steg i utformningen av ett instrument för självreflektion som fokuserar på de grundläggande förutsättningarna för att leva en hållbar och hälsosam livsstil som polis.

Konklusion: Denna avhandling belyser den komplexa interaktion av faktorer som definierar polisers unika livsstilar, påverkade av deras livskontexter, roller och vardagsaktiviteter. Den belyser vikten av organisatoriska strategier, såväl som polisers hälsofrämjande strategier i att upprätthålla en hållbar livsstil viktig för att främja hållbarhet gällande hälsa. I ljuset av samhällsutmaningar och behovet av en stark poliskår är upprätthållande av polisers hållbarhet gällande hälsa av yttersta vikt, både för Polismyndigheten och samhället.

Background: Patrolling police officers engage in different mentally, socially, and physically challenging life contexts which may affect their life and health. The aim of this scoping review is twofold, to explore life contexts of patrolling officers in the European Union, and to investigate how their lives and health are affected by environmental characteristics within these contexts.

Methods: The scoping review followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology and included a critical appraisal. The environmental model within Kielhofner’s Model of Human Occupation was used in the thematic analysis. The review was reported following PRISMA-ScR.

Results: In the 16 included studies, two contexts (where environments interact with persons on different levels) were discovered: the global and the immediate context. No local contexts were found. Primarily, research on the social, and occupational environments, including qualities identified in these environments were found. However, some environmental characteristics within patrolling officers’ physical environments were also discovered.

Discussion: This review contributes to the emerging research area of police officers’ life contexts, by mapping contexts and environments affecting their life and health. However, to get a deeper understanding of how officers are affected by their environments, interviewing them regarding how their different contexts affect their everyday living, would be important.

Police officers frequently encounter stressful social situations during their working days. Furthermore, previous research on policing and families show that police officers’ families are impacted in different ways when at least one member of the family has the role of a police officer. Despite work spilling over to family life there is currently little research on police officers’ role-balancing. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore and describe the challenges that arise at the intersection between police officers’ professional roles and their private life roles as parents and life partners, as well as how police officers balance these roles in between. We used qualitative content analysis after interviewing 13 uniformed police officers. The findings show how the police officers’ professional roles affect their private life roles within three different sub-themes and are summarized under the theme of "Balancing conflicting roles: Coping with professional and private life commitments". The theme revolves around the various challenges of working as a uniformed police officer, such as hypervigilance and risks, as well as the enrichments and conflicts of working shifts while also juggling private life roles. The results also touch on gender and equality in life-partner relationships. The study raises an important question about how these challenges can be mitigated within Police authorities to enable uniformed police officers to balance their professional and personal lives in a healthy and sustainable manner.

Introduction: The police officer occupation is a high-risk profession, with significantly more traumatic and stressful events than other occupations. Key factors for the health of police officers have been found to be related to intra-interpersonal, occupational, and organizational factors. However, the mechanisms underlying why is inconclusive. This protocol therefore intends to explain the approach for conducting both a scoping review, and systematic review. The overall aim of the reviews is to investigate patrolling police officers' life contexts with the intention to identify barriers and resources that affect their lifestyle and health.

Methods: The protocol is reported according to the PRISMA-P guidelines, with PROSPERO number: CRD42020190583. Searches will be carried out in SCOPUS, Web of Science, PubMed, OpenGrey, and EBSCO (Academic Search Premiere, APA PsychINFO, CINAHL, SocINDEX). Two independent raters will screen articles and conduct the critical appraisal. Analyses include Arksey and O'Malley's methodology for the scoping review, and a narrative synthesis for the systematic review, including critically appraising the total body of evidence in the systematic review.

Discussion: The purpose of the reviews is to understand patrolling police officers' life contexts, and support future development of an assessment that measures patrolling police officers' life balance from a contextual viewpoint.

In research and among clinicians, the focus has shifted from mainly symptom reduction and increasing functionality to a more recovery-oriented focus. Although there are instruments measuring recovery, there has been a lack of instruments sensitive enough to measure the quality of life for people with severe mental health disorders. Therefore, this study aimed to obtain a Swedish version of the Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) questionnaire adhering to best practice guidelines using various steps of translation, linguistic validation, and cognitive debriefing. The cognitive debriefing was conducted with seven participants, and all felt the items in the questionnaire were relevant to their health, apprehensible, and easy to complete. However, some issues were raised regarding wording and the concepts behind certain items. All feedback was considered, and some items were revised in response to criticism after continuous discussions. A Swedish version of ReQoL now exists, and although there is a need for ReQoL in different clinical research settings in Sweden, further research is required to psychometrically test the construct validity as well as reliability of the Swedish version in Sweden.