Korean J Community Nutr.  2011 Oct;16(5):592-601. 10.5720/kjcn.2011.16.5.592.

The Effects of Individual Emotional Characteristics on Emotional Labor of School Dietitians

Affiliations
  • 1Yeonga Elementary School, Seoul, Korea.
  • 2Department of Food and Nutrition, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.
  • 3Department of Business Administration, Dongduk Women's University, Seoul, Korea.
  • 4Department of Food and Nutrition, Sangji University, Wonju, Korea. hy1317@sangji.ac.kr

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of individual emotional characteristics (empathetic concern and emotional contagion) on emotional labor (frequency of emotional display, intensity and variety of emotional display, surface acting, and deep acting) of school dietitians. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 309 school dietitians and then analyzed statistically by SPSS 18.0 package program. The results of this study were as follows: empathetic concern (3.93) occurred more often than emotional contagion (3.22) in school dietitians. The older (p < 0.001) and more experienced (p < 0.01) they were, the higher empathetic concern they had. It showed that married dieticians (p < 0.001), nutrition teachers (p < 0.01), and dieticians who were working in elementary schools (p < 0.01) had a higher rate of empathetic concern than single dieticians, non-nutrition teachers, and dieticians who were working in middle and high schools, respectively. Their level of emotional labor was the highest in deep acting (3.32), followed by surface acting (3.28), frequency (3.12), intensity and variety (3.09). According to multiple regression analysis, emotional contagion proved to be strongly significant and positively related to frequency of emotional display (beta = 0.257, p < 0.001). Both empathetic concern (beta = 0.117, p < 0.05) and emotional contagion (beta = 0.162, p < 0.01) were positively related to intensity and variety of emotional display, and empathetic concern (beta = 0.173, p < 0.01) had also an effect on deep acting. These results suggested that the emotional labor of school dietitians should be managed on the organizational viewpoint, not a personal matter.

Keyword

individual emotional characteristics; emotional labor; surface acting; deep acting; school dietitian

MeSH Terms

Humans
Surveys and Questionnaires

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