Research into how young people and the police cope with emotions under pressure

During the New Year's celebrations, there were many violent confrontations between young people and the police. How can we prevent this? Last week, the CONTEXT research project was launched, in the hope that it may help tackle this complex problem. In this project, stressful situations are simulated in Virtual Reality (VR) for both target groups, heart rates are measured, and emotion regulation skills are trained. The aim is to prevent things getting out of hand on both sides and to strengthen sustainable resilience.

‘We believe you can achieve a lot by bringing together several target groups’, says Teun-Pieter de Snoo. Teun-Pieter is the research lead for professional resilience at the Centre of Knowledge on People and the Police Organisation. He is involved in the project on behalf of the Police Academy. The project brings together a large number of parties. ‘The good thing is that it is not aimed solely at the police, but also at young people, particularly young people with aggression issues.’ 

‘Both police officers and young people face stressful situations. Although they are often considered polar opposites, they share a challenge: coping with intense emotions under pressure. If they fail to regulate these emotions, it may lead to similar effects in both groups, including increased stress-related complaints and decreased decisiveness.’

The thinking brain under pressure

Participants in the CONTEXT project include researchers, research universities and universities of applied sciences, and schools for senior secondary vocational education, as well as societal organisations, such as Bureau Halt. Halt, a rehabilitation programme for young people who have committed a minor offence, often deals with young people who have trouble regulating their emotions.

‘Young people who are bored and become aggressive, for instance’, Teun-Pieter adds. ‘Or who are so fired up on New Year’s Eve that they’re no longer aware what they’re doing. Their thinking brain is overruled, because they’re carried away by everything going on around them. The brain goes into fight-or-flight mode; part of their self-reflection and inhibitions go out the window.’

‘The first step in this project is to explore how the mechanisms related to stress and emotion regulation work in these young people. What actually triggers the aggression? In some young people the aggression is planned, but for others, things get out of hand in the heat of the moment. These two groups require different approaches. A brief training, attuned to the biology of the individual, may help prevent future escalation.’

Decision-making in stressful situations

The CONTEXT project was initiated by the Radboud University. They, with the Police Academy, previously developed the VR Decision Under Stress Training’ (DUST). In this training, police officers experience stressful situations and simultaneously have to make decisions.

‘A next step in the study is to develop tailor-made training for young people with aggression issues. We feel that with a few adaptations, the training we now to offer police officers would also be suitable for these young people, allowing them to practise making decisions under pressure and regulating their emotions in stressful situations. Simply put, the training helps them switch the thinking brain back on, especially when tensions are rising.’

‘This is exactly what these young people need: help to regain some degree of control instead of getting carried away by the situation and going and setting fire to things. In this project we study the interplay between body and brain during stress, to subsequently offer training tailored to the individual, aimed at getting the exact processes that lead to problems under control.’

Balance between accelerator and brake

By now, about 500 police officers have received the DUST training. ‘An important insight we gained from DUST is just how much your physical condition is connected with the behaviour you display. So your physical condition is extremely important where it comes to being alert. At the same time, as a police officer, your professional attitude must always take centre stage. When I give the DUST training, I sometimes tell students the aim isn’t for them to walk out of here as Zen masters. It’s all about the balance between the accelerator and the brake.’

‘Sometimes you have to be highly alert to make decisions and start running to catch an offender at the same time. But you don’t want to be lying in bed at night still pumped with adrenaline. That’s when you need to step on the brake.’

‘So what we teach in the DUST training is how to get the balance right between accelerating and braking. If you learn something in stressful circumstances, it’s much easier to apply this knowledge in everyday situations, as you’ve practised it before during the training.’

Putting theory into practice

The Police Academy is assessing what target groups within the police force could participate in the project. ‘Duty Officers, for instance. They experience a lot of stress. Another possible target group are the officers who are just moving from initial skills level to professional level. They’ve completed their police training, but now have to deal with a lot of new situations. They can still use some support while learning in on the job.’

Teun-Pieter also wants to explore how the DUST training can be followed up in everyday policing. ‘Officers who have done the training have said they’d like some sort of booster at a later stage, as this would help them use the training in operational situations. Maybe it could be a reminder on your smartwatch when tensions are rising: ‘check your breathing’, or something like that. We could also develop something similar for the young people in the project.’

In contact

The project has a duration of eight years. ‘We’re right at the start of the process now, so we’re still exploring which young people we’ll offer the training to. Maybe a group that have been in contact with Bureau Halt, or maybe a group that are already in detention.’

‘We hear from the institutions involved, but also from the young people themselves, that they feel the need to be more in control. To get their emotions under control, channel aggression, or express it at a more suitable time – that’s important to them too.’

‘For us, DUST was interesting because it showed us the effects of stress on someone’s body. Now we’re linking that with social behaviour, at the societal level, with the long-term aim of preventing aggression and violence. Ultimately, we also want to bring the various parties together. We’re still figuring out how to go about this.’