engleski

EMOTIONAL LABOR PROFILES AMONG TEACHERS: ASSOCIATIONS WITH POSITIVE AFFECTIVE, MOTIVATIONAL AND WELL-BEING OUTCOMES

Previous studies on teachers’ emotional labor have mostly used a variable-centered approach that examines the associations of emotional labor strategies with particular outcome variables thus neglecting the possibility that teachers use different emotional labor strategies simultaneously. Therefore, in this study we took a person-centered approach and explored the emotional labor profiles among teachers (N=2022) by using a latent profile analysis. Additionally, we examined differences among profiles with regard to teachers’ positive affect, self-efficacy, work engagement and job satisfaction. Results revealed six emotional labor profiles characterized by different combinations of deep acting, hiding feelings, and faking emotions. The largest subgroup of teachers, labeled deep actors, reported that they mostly use deep acting, but also sometimes rely on both hiding feelings and faking emotions. The second largest subgroup (i.e., moderate regulators) moderately use all three strategies, but with somewhat higher frequency of deep acting. The next subgroup of teachers was labeled true deep actors because these teachers use almost exclusively deep acting. Next, low regulators engage in all three emotional labor strategies with a similar low frequency. The last two groups of teachers were the smallest (in terms of number of teachers) and were labeled high suppressors (they frequently use all three strategies, but mostly hiding feelings) and low suppressors (they rarely use any strategy but when they do, it is likely they choose hiding feelings). Comparisons of these profiles with respect to positive affect, self-efficacy, work engagement and job satisfaction showed that profiles of teachers who dominantly rely on deep acting had the most adaptive patterns of analyzed outcomes, while profiles of teachers who tend to hide their feelings exhibited less desirable levels of analyzed outcomes. These results imply that teachers with suboptimal constellations of EL strategies can be subjected to intervention programs to ensure and maintain positive professional development.

teachers, emotional labor, positive outcomes, latent profile analysis

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