Search Results (18)

Background/Objectives: South Korea is rapidly transitioning into a super-aged society, increasing the importance of care services to ensure the health and quality of life of older adults. Although the number of professional caregivers has steadily grown, these workers face a high risk of depression due to the emotional labor inherent to their roles. This study aimed to analyze factors influencing depression among female professional caregivers by employment type (full-time and part-time) and to explore policy and practical intervention strategies to promote their mental health. Methods: Using data from the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, we selected 223 professional caregivers with at least 1 year of work experience. After excluding insincere responses and male participants, 217 participants were included in the final analysis: 121 full-time and 96 part-time professional caregivers. Results: We found that full-time workers experienced higher levels of depression when they lacked access to health and safety education and could not use paid leave. Part-time workers experienced high levels of depression when engaging in physical activity <3 days per week and when exposed to violence. Conclusions: Based on these findings, the study recommends regular and systematic health and safety education, the establishment of substitute worker support to facilitate paid leave use, promotion of physical activity through education and community programs, regular violence prevention education, and comprehensive support systems for victims. This study is significant in empirically identifying depression risk factors by employment type among female professional caregivers. Future research should include male professional caregivers and employ more advanced measurement tools and longitudinal designs. Full article

Emotional intelligence significantly influences various aspects of teachers’ professional and personal lives, notably affecting preschoolers’ social skills and emotional development during formative years. This study utilizes a network analysis approach to explore the complex relationships among four components of emotional intelligence: emotional labor, emotional regulation, professional well-being, and professional identity. Participants included 2069 frontline Chinese teachers (34 males, 2035 females; M = 28.64, SD = 5.98; M years of teaching = 6.88, SD = 5.29) with no leadership roles, categorized into three stages of their careers based on years of teaching experience: novice (0–3 years; n = 612), advanced beginners (4–6 years; n = 537), and competent (7–40 years; n = 920). Findings revealed that joy of teaching, role value, and professional value were identified as the most critical elements within the emotional state network of early childhood education teachers. The strongest connections in teachers’ emotional networks were found between school connectedness and joy of teaching (r = 0.474), surface acting behavior and natural acting behavior (r = 0.419), and professional value and professional behavior (r = 0.372). Furthermore, teachers across different career stages exhibited similar characteristics and intrinsic connections among emotional state components. These findings deepen our understanding of the emotional state networks of ECE teachers, highlighting shared features and interconnected mechanisms, and suggest that enhancing teachers’ emotional intelligence through targeted professional development can improve both teacher well-being and preschoolers’ social–emotional outcomes. Policies that foster strong school connectedness and reduce emotional labor are key to promoting sustained joy in teaching, particularly for novice and advanced beginner teachers. Full article

Background/Objectives: Hwa-byung (HB), traditionally observed in middle-aged Korean women, was investigated among the MZ generation in Republic of Korea to investigate its prevalence, associated factors, and perceptions. Methods: An online survey was conducted with 449 Korean adults in the Republic of Korea born between 1980 and 2005. The participants completed questionnaires that assessed HB symptoms, emotional labor, psychological distress, and HB perceptions. Data were analyzed using Chi-squared tests, t-tests, and bivariate logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of HB in the MZ generation was 36.3%. Significant HB predictors included female sex (odds ratio [OR] = 2.314), poor subjective health (OR = 3.207), higher HB trait scores (OR = 1.155), depression (OR = 1.145), and state anger (OR = 1.087). Only 44.54% of the participants were aware that HB is a diagnosed mental disorder and 34.97% knew that it could be treated at traditional Korean medicine (TKM) clinics. Despite the limited awareness, 49% expressed interest in TKM treatment for HB, in which acupuncture, herbal medicine, and mind–body medicine are the preferred modalities. Conclusions: This study revealed a high HB prevalence among the MZ generation in the Republic of Korea, which challenges traditional perceptions of this syndrome. These findings highlight the need to reevaluate HB conceptualization and treatment approaches for younger generations. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies, qualitative investigations of the evolving HB cultural context, and the development of targeted awareness and intervention programs to address this significant mental health issue in contemporary Korean society. Full article

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of job satisfaction on psychological well-being through emotional labor for Taiwanese home-care workers. A total of 316 home-care workers who worked in Chiayi, Taiwan, were recruited in this study. Most of the participants were Taiwanese (96.5%). The mean age of the participants was 42.05 ± 12.15 years, and the participants were predominantly female (80%). The mean work experience was 5.64 ± 5.13 years. Job satisfaction, emotional labor, and psychological well-being were measured. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect effects on job satisfaction, emotional labor, and psychological well-being. The results demonstrated that the internal factors of job satisfaction had indirect effects on psychological well-being through the mediating effects of surface acting and deep acting. However, it was also observed that the external factors of job satisfaction had indirect effects on psychological well-being through the mediating effect of surface acting but not deep acting. The model explained 57.6% of the variance in psychological well-being. The internal factors of job satisfaction are more important than the external factors affecting psychological well-being through the mediating effect of deep acting. Based on our results, we recommend enhancing the deep acting of emotional labor to improve the psychological well-being of Taiwanese home-care workers. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on healthcare systems around the world, including in Latin America. In Colombia, there have been over 23,000 confirmed cases and 100 deaths since 2022, with the highest number of cases occurring in females and the highest number of deaths in males. The elderly and those with comorbidities, such as arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory diseases, have been particularly affected. Coinfections with other microorganisms, including dengue virus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, have also been a significant factor in increasing morbidity and mortality rates in COVID-19 patients. It is important for surveillance systems to be improved and protocols to be established for the early detection and management of coinfections in COVID-19. In addition to traditional treatments, alternatives such as zinc supplementation and nanomedicine may have potential in the fight against COVID-19. It is also crucial to consider the social, labor, educational, psychological, and emotional costs of the pandemic and to address issues such as poverty and limited access to potable water in order to better prepare for future pandemics. Full article

The purpose of this study is to analyze how general characteristics, emotional labor, empathy ability, and wisdom affect the psychological well-being of female caregivers. The research design is a descriptive correlational study. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire, and analyzed using the SPSS Windows 27.0 program for hierarchical regression analysis. The results showed that there were differences in psychological well-being according to the work experience, education, and monthly income of 129 participants. In the analysis of the factors affecting the participants’ psychological well-being, model 1 showed 18.9% explanatory power with educational experience (ß = −0.23, p = 0.012) and monthly income (ß = 0.25, p = 0.007). In model 2, educational experience (ß = −0.23, p = 0.004), monthly income (ß = 0.20, p = 0.017), and emotional labor (ß = −0.41, p < 0.001) were the affecting factors, and the explanatory power increased by 16.1%, showing 35.0% overall. In model 3, educational experience (ß =−0.28, p < 0.001), emotional labor (ß = −0.35, p < 0.001), empathy ability (ß = 0.23, p = 0.001), and wisdom (ß = 0.52, p < 0.001) were the affecting factors, and the explanatory power increased by 36.9%, showing 71.9% overall. To enhance the psychological well-being of the participants, the head of the caregiving center should consider the education and income of caregivers. The center should also operate programs and prepare policies to reduce emotional labor and enhance empathy ability and wisdom. Full article

Household violence poses a significant threat to the physical and mental health of adolescent girls. In conflict-affected communities, increased stresses to safety, security, health, and livelihoods may heighten this risk. While it is widely evidenced that the caregiver-child relationship can increase or protect against girls’ risk of violence, less is known about the role of male siblings. Sibling Support for Adolescent Girls in Emergencies (SSAGE) used whole-family support programming to synchronously engage adolescent girls, their male siblings, and their caregivers in conflict-affected communities in Jordan and Niger, using gender-transformative approaches to explore the impacts of gender norms, power, and violence and encourage support and emotional connection. We conducted qualitative research activities, including focus group discussions, participatory group activities, and in-depth, paired, and key informant interviews with 469 SSAGE participants and program facilitators to explore SSAGE’s impact on the male-female sibling dyad in both settings. The multi-stakeholder team used a collaborative thematic analysis approach to identify emergent themes. Findings suggest that the inclusion of male siblings in family strengthening programs may have a positive impact on factors related to girls’ protection, with research participants discussing decreased perpetration of physical and verbal violence by male siblings, increased equity in household labor between siblings, and improved trust and mutual support among siblings. These changes were facilitated by improved communication and interrogation of positive gender identities. In humanitarian settings, interventions that support more gender-transformative, egalitarian, and emotionally effective relationships between male-female siblings can work towards improving girls’ protective assets. More research on the impact of this relationship on girls’ experience of immediate and long-term experience of violence is needed. In settings where gender power dynamics among male-female siblings are less salient, other relationship dyads should be explored. Full article

The importance of medical personnel’s mental health is emphasized in the COVID-19 era. The characteristics of traditional Korean medicine (KM) may affect the mental health of nursing staff working at KM clinics. In this case series, we report the first attempt to apply an online mindfulness program to the nursing staff in a KM clinic in Korea. For three female nursing assistants, an online mindfulness program consisting of five sessions was offered for two months. After the program, a decrease in emotional labor was observed in two participants, and a decrease in the level of burnout was observed in all participants. One participant showed an increase in their emotional labor level, which was associated with an increase in deep acting. The participants expressed a high level of satisfaction with this program in terms of recommendations for peers and willingness to participate again. As this report is a case series, larger studies are needed to fully evaluate the benefits of the program on emotional labor and burnout of KM clinic nursing staff. However, the potential benefits of emotional labor and burnout, high satisfaction, and some challenges identified in this case series can be considered in future extensions and modifications of the program. Full article

Although South Korea has implemented various smoking cessation services, women who are emotional laborers, as well as parcel delivery, transportation, and construction workers, have poor access to these services. This study evaluated the smoking-related characteristics of workers in these four occupations as well as the awareness of and need for smoking cessation services. In total 808 workers in these four occupations aged 19 years and above were recruited nationwide and had their data analyzed. The participants’ age, marital status, number of work hours per week, job-related stress, age when they started smoking, average number of cigarettes a day, types of tobacco products, close relationships to others who smoke, number of attempts to quit smoking, plans to quit smoking, awareness of cessation services, prior utilization of cessation services, and need for cessation services were surveyed. Compared with parcel delivery workers, female emotional laborers and transportation and construction workers had more attempts to quit smoking, plans to quit smoking, and prior utilization of smoking cessation services, moreover, construction workers had a significantly lower awareness of smoking cessation services. Parcel delivery workers need smoking cessation programs, mobile applications to help them quit smoking, and improvements in their work environments. Cessation services and education should be promoted at workplaces and among managers. Full article

Purpose: Mental health assessments that combine patients’ facial expressions and behaviors have been proven effective, but screening large-scale student populations for mental health problems is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This study aims to provide an efficient and accurate intelligent method for further psychological diagnosis and treatment, which combines artificial intelligence technologies to assist in evaluating the mental health problems of college students. Materials and Methods: We propose a mixed-method study of mental health assessment that combines psychological questionnaires with facial emotion analysis to comprehensively evaluate the mental health of students on a large scale. The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21(DASS-21) is used for the psychological questionnaire. The facial emotion recognition model is implemented by transfer learning based on neural networks, and the model is pre-trained using FER2013 and CFEE datasets. Among them, the FER2013 dataset consists of 48 × 48-pixel face gray images, a total of 35,887 face images. The CFEE dataset contains 950,000 facial images with annotated action units (au). Using a random sampling strategy, we sent online questionnaires to 400 college students and received 374 responses, and the response rate was 93.5%. After pre-processing, 350 results were available, including 187 male and 153 female students. First, the facial emotion data of students were collected in an online questionnaire test. Then, a pre-trained model was used for emotion recognition. Finally, the online psychological questionnaire scores and the facial emotion recognition model scores were collated to give a comprehensive psychological evaluation score. Results: The experimental results of the facial emotion recognition model proposed to show that its classification results are broadly consistent with the mental health survey results. This model can be used to improve efficiency. In particular, the accuracy of the facial emotion recognition model proposed in this paper is higher than that of the general mental health model, which only uses the traditional single questionnaire. Furthermore, the absolute errors of this study in the three symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress are lower than other mental health survey results and are only 0.8%, 8.1%, 3.5%, and 1.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The mixed method combining intelligent methods and scales for mental health assessment has high recognition accuracy. Therefore, it can support efficient large-scale screening of students’ psychological problems. Full article

The sustainable development of early childhood institutions in aging China calls for the sustainable development of early childhood teachers, which should attend to the balanced development between male and female teachers. Yet this issue has not been adequately investigated in the literature. To fill this research gap, this study explored the gender differences in Chinese early childhood (EC) teachers’ professional identity (PI) and emotional labor strategies. Altogether, 250 teachers (146 female and 104 male, M_age = 30.28 years, SD = 7.81) from Southern China were sampled and surveyed. First, the independent samples t-tests revealed significant gender differences in teachers’ PI, deep acting, and surface acting. Second, the structural equation modelling results demonstrated that PI fully mediated the relationship between teacher educational attainment, years of teaching experience, and natural and deep acting. Third, multigroup analysis confirmed different mediation paths for female and male teachers. These findings suggest that male and female early childhood teachers differed in their sense of PI and use of emotional labor strategies. Therefore, future policymaking efforts should design and implement teacher professional development (PD) programs and teacher support mechanisms catering to male EC teachers’ needs, characteristics, and difficulties in the Chinese EC workforce. Full article

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of moral distress on physician burnout during COVID-19. Physicians in the US were interviewed between February and March 2021; 479 responded to our survey. The results indicated that moral distress was a key mediator in explaining the relationship between perceived organizational support, medical specialization, emotional labor, and coping with burnout. Results did not support increased burnout among female physicians, and contracting COVID-19 likewise did not play a role in burnout. Our findings suggest that physician burnout can be mitigated by increasing perceived organizational support; likewise, physicians who engaged in deep emotional labor and problem-focused coping tended to fare better when it came to feelings of moral distress and subsequent burnout. Full article

Teacher burnout is a psychological syndrome affecting many teachers across the globe. Therefore, numerous studies have investigated antecedents of teacher burnout in order to provide recommendations to alleviate it. Although the studies pay attention to either the role of environmental factors, such as school culture, or individual factors, such as gender, in contributing to teacher burnout, they less frequently examine how teacher burnout is concurrently influenced by both factors. Thus, this study aims to understand the relationship between clan culture and burnout by examining the mediation effect of emotional labor and the moderating effect of gender. A sample of 467 primary and secondary schoolteachers from China participated in this study. The result demonstrated the following: (1) clan culture was negatively related to teacher burnout; (2) deep acting mediated the relationship between clan culture and teacher burnout, while surface acting did not; (3) the mediating effect of deep acting was only significant in the female group of teachers, not the male group. Full article

‘Feminization’ is used either quantitatively to indicate an increased female labor market participation or qualitatively to refer to labor devaluation and to types of work that supposedly require “feminine” skillsets. This article cautiously hews to the qualitative interpretations but suggests an affirmative reconstruction of the concept in the context of collective action. It argues that contemporary grassroots academic labor movements rely more explicitly on collective emotions and aim at building long-term bases of solidarity, instead of performative activism and mass mobilizations. This ‘affective turn’ in academic labor activism is argued to signal a “feminization of resistance”, characterized by a pronounced propensity for affective and relational groundwork. This argument is substantiated in view of the Network for Decent Work in Academia (NGAWiss), a nation-wide precarious researchers’ network in Germany, and the New Faculty Majority (NFM), an adjunct advocacy group in the US. The aim is twofold: first, the article contributes to a better understanding of contemporary labor activism by elucidating the precarious collective’s incremental achievements, often ignored by the outcome-oriented labor movement literature. Second, by reframing it as a mode of affective resistance, the article extends the analytical scope of the term “feminization”. Full article

Gender norms prescribe domestic labor as primarily a female’s responsibility in developing countries. Many domestic tasks depend on access to water, so the physical, emotional, and time demands of domestic labor may be exacerbated for women living in water-insecure environments. We developed a set of domestic work experience (DWE) measures tailored to work in rural areas in developing countries, assessed rural Nigerian women’s DWE, and examined relationships among the measures. Interviewer-administered survey data were collected between August and September from 256 women in four rural Nigerian communities. Latent factors of DWE were identified by analyzing survey items using confirmatory factor analysis. Pearson’s correlation was used to examine relationships among latent factor scores, and multivariate linear regression models were used to determine if factor scores significantly differed across socio-demographic characteristics. The DWE measures consisted of latent factors of the physical domain (frequency of common domestic tasks, water sourcing and carriage, experience of water scarcity), the psychosocial domain (stress appraisal and demand–control), and the social domain (social support). Significant correlations were observed among the latent factors within and across domains. Results revealed the importance of measuring rural Nigerian women’s DWE using multiple and contextual approaches rather than relying solely on one exposure measure. Multiple inter-related factors contributed to women’s DWE. Water insecurity exacerbated the physical and emotional demands of domestic labor DWE varied across age categories and pregnancy status among rural Nigerian women. Full article