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Correlation of emotional labor and cortisol concentration in hair among female kindergarten teachers

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Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to explore whether two types of emotional labor, surface acting and deep acting, are related to hair cortisol concentration among kindergarten teachers.

Methods

Surface acting and deep acting over the last month were measured with the Chinese version of the emotional labor scale in 43 kindergarten teachers. Hair samples with 1 cm in length were cut from their posterior vertex region to represent cortisol excretion over one month. Cortisol concentrations were analyzed with high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.

Results

Positive association of emotion labor with hair cortisol concentration was significant for surface acting (r = 0.34, p < 0.05) and not significant for deep acting (r = 0.14, p > 0.05).

Conclusions

More surface acting showed to be associated stronger with stress responses or higher HPA axis activity.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Humanities and Social Science Foundation, Ministry of Education (15YJAZH009), and Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Foundation (15GLB017), China, and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for Southeast University, Ministry of Education, and Jiangsu Provincial Innovation Project for Scientific Research of Graduate Students in Universities (CXLX12_0122), Jiangsu Province, China.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hangzhou College of Preschool Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, 210012, China

    Xingliang Qi

  2. Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, and Institute of Child Development and Education, Research Center for Learning Science, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Xingliang Qi, Shuang Ji, Jing Zhang & Huihua Deng

  3. College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Wanyong Lu

  4. Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, Academic Medical Center University of Amsterdam, PO Box 22700, 1100 DE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Judith K. Sluiter

  5. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Huihua Deng

Authors
  1. Xingliang Qi
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  2. Shuang Ji
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  3. Jing Zhang
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  4. Wanyong Lu
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  5. Judith K. Sluiter
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  6. Huihua Deng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xingliang Qi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no competing interests to report.

Additional information

Huihua Deng and Judith K. Sluiter are co-principal investigators of this study.

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Qi, X., Ji, S., Zhang, J. et al. Correlation of emotional labor and cortisol concentration in hair among female kindergarten teachers. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 90, 117–122 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-016-1179-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-016-1179-6

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