Relationship between emotional labor and burnout among dental hygienists

Objectives: The purposes of this study is to examine the relationship between emotional labor and burnout among dental hygienists. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 247 dental hygienists from September 4 to October 9, 2014. The questionnaire consisted of emotional labor, job burnout, and job stress. Emotional labor included frequency of emotional expression, compliance with emotional regulation, emotional diversity, and emotional dissonance by the instrument pf Morris and Feldman. Job burnout was adopted from Maslach burnout inventory(MBI). Job stress was adpoted from instrument of Chang. Except 13 incomplete answers, 234 data were analyzed by AMOS 18.0 and SPSS 18.0 program. Results: The emotional labor has a significant positive relation to the job burnout. There was a statistical significance between emotional labor and job stress. Job stress had a positive relation to job burnout. Job stress had a mediating effect between emotional labor and job burnout. Emotional labor had a direct effect on the job burnout. Job stress also had a mediating effect on job burnout. Conclusions: It is necessary to improve working environment that can enhance emotional balance and to develop job stress management program.