Overwhelmed by Emotional Job Demands in High Vigor Days! Its Detrimental Effects on Daily Recovery from Work among Health-Care Workers

The objective of this study is twofold: first, to analyze whether the daily level of energy in terms of vigor at work could explain the way in which workers psychologically detach from their work, relax, practice challenging activities, and have the feeling of having control over their leisure time when arriving home. Second, to check if the daily emotional job demands could hinder that relationship, reversing the positive effect of vigor in recovery. For this purpose, a multilevel study with a diary methodology was designed. In total, 94 nurses from various hospital and primary care centers in Madrid and Basque Country (Spain) participated in this study. They completed daily questionnaires twice a day (in the afternoon after work and at night before going to bed) for five consecutive workdays from Monday to Friday (N = 94*5 = 470). The results revealed that on days that vigor at work was high, nurses experienced more psychological detachment, relaxation, feelings of mastery, and time control at home. Moreover, on days that emotional job demands were high, vigor was more negatively related to psychological detachment and time control at home. Additionally, vigor was more positively related to all recovery experiences at home in days that emotional demands were low. Therefore, daily vigor can act as an energy resource that helps the worker to recover. However, this effect can occur in situations in which stressors are not present in high intensity. These results have clear practical implications for both health organizations and workers.

Examining the Relationships Between Job Characteristics, Emotional Regulation and University Teachers' Well-Being: The Mediation of Emotional Regulation

This study investigated the associations between university teachers’ emotional job demands, teaching support, and well-being, and examined the mediating effect of emotional regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. The results of a survey of 643 university teachers in mainland China indicated that emotional job demands and teaching support, which facilitated teachers’ use of reappraisal strategies, had desirable effects on their well-being. Reappraisal was beneficial to teachers’ well-being, and suppression was harmful. These findings support the mediation role of emotional regulation, and evidence the applicability of the JD-R model to a higher education context.

Evidence From the Low-Income Country Context

Previous research has not clearly studied how the effects of emotional job demands on absenteeism likelihood are moderated by the contingent absenteeism-related regulatory institutional environments of low-income countries. In this regard, we surveyed 487 healthcare workers in a low-income country in order to test for the effect of emotional job demands on healthcare workers’ absenteeism likelihood. We also explored the mediating role of work engagement and the contingent role of context-specific regulatory institutional environments on the link between emotional job demands and absenteeism likelihood. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) emotional job demands have a direct positive effect on healthcare workers’ absenteeism likelihood, (2) work engagement plays a mediating role on the link between emotional job demands and healthcare workers’ absenteeism likelihood, and (3) the regulatory institutional environment related to absenteeism moderates the negative link between work engagement and absenteeism likelihood. Results in this study demonstrate the crucial role that the context-specific regulatory institutional environment related to absenteeism plays in suppressing the effect of emotional job demands on absenteeism likelihood when considered through the work-engagement pathway. The study’s findings clarify the mechanism through which emotional job demands affect absenteeism likelihood in a low-income country context. The study thus offers a new refined theoretical perspective on how emotional job demands, work engagement, and context-specific regulatory institutional environments interact in ways that predict absenteeism likelihood.

Caring efficacy: nurses' perceptions and relationships with work-related factors

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK

Caring nursing practice is central aspect of quality of services. It is important to assess nurses' caring experience in terms of perceived caring efficacy to make them aware of their outcomes and improve their strategies. The aims of the study was to analyze: (1) the caring efficacy level, (2) differences between the caring efficacy levels concerning  positive and negative work attitudes, (3) individual and organizational predictors of perceived caring efficacy.

METHODS

200 nurses were recruited from a University Hospital in Southern Italy. A self-reported questionnaire was administered. T-test was performed to analyze differences between caring efficacy levels concerning outcomes variables. Regression analysis was carried out to examine how some work factors were related to perceived caring efficacy.

RESULTS

Participants referred high confidence to care (CC) for 55%, and low doubts and concerns (DC) for 72.9%. Nurses who had low DC had lower emotional exhaustion than nurses with moderate DC. Nurses with low DC had higher job satisfaction than nurses with high DC. Regarding CC levels, there were no differences between mean values for both attitudes at work. The emotional dissonance significantly predicted DC and CC. The supervisor support had a negative link with emotional dissonance, which in turn was negatively related to CC.

CONCLUSIONS

Education and training should be addressed to reduce doubts and concerns to care and improve the ability to manage emotions. A work environment that value caring and give support in managing emotions can reduce emotional dissonance and improve caring self-efficacy.

A Multilevel Analysis of Job Characteristics, Emotion Regulation, and Teacher Well-Being: A Job Demands-Resources Model

This study integrated personal factors into the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to examine school- and individual-level predictors of teacher well-being. Survey data were gathered from 1,656 teachers from 54 schools. The results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that the school-level emotional job demands of teaching and suppression at the individual level were positively related to teachers' anxiety and depression whereas school-level trust in colleagues and individual-level reappraisal were positively associated with enthusiasm and contentment. Positive relationship between emotional job demands and suppression was also found. These findings support the claim that reappraisal should be considered a personal resource and suppression a personal demand.

Work Environment Characteristics and Teacher Well-Being: The Mediation of Emotion Regulation Strategies

Based on an adjusted Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model that considers the mediation of personal resources, this study examined the relationships between two characteristics of teachers’ work environment (i.e., emotional job demands and trust in colleagues) and two indicators of teachers’ well-being (i.e., teaching satisfaction and emotional exhaustion). In particular, the study focused on how emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) mediate these relationships. Data collected from a questionnaire survey of 1115 primary school teachers in Hong Kong was analyzed to test the hypothesized relationships. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) the emotional job demands of teaching were detrimental to teacher well-being, whereas trust in colleagues was beneficial; (2) both emotion regulation strategies mediated the relationships between both emotional job demands and trust in colleagues and teacher well-being; and (3) teachers who tend to use more reappraisal may be psychologically healthier than those tend to adopt more suppression. These findings support the applicability of the JD-R model to school settings and highlight the role of teachers’ emotion regulation in teachers’ well-being. Implications for the improvement of school environments and teachers’ well-being are identified.