The relationship between emotional labor, job stress and job satisfaction in midwifery

Context: Midwives provide intensive emotional labor for women and their families during periods ofemotional changes, such as pregnancy and childbirth.Aims: The relationship between midwives’ job stress, job satisfaction, and emotional labor was investigated.Setting and Design: This cross‑sectional study included 198 midwives from public hospital in Turkey in 2019Material and Methods: In this study, 198 participants were selected through simple random sampling. Thedata collection tools used were a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Emotional Labor Scale, the PerceivedStress Scale, and the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale.Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive data are presented as mean, standard deviation, number, andpercentage. In the statistical analysis of the data, an independent sample t‑test, multiple regression analysis,and Pearson correlation analysis were used.Results: In the multiple regression analysis, there was a significantly negative correlation (β: −0.144,P = 0.025) between the surface acting subscale of emotional labor and job satisfaction, a positive correlationwith deep acting (β: 0.148, P = 0.038), a positive correlation with emotional effort (β: 0.371, P < 0.025), anegative and significant relationship with a lack of staff (β: −0.227, P < 0.001) and a positive correlation withthe number of patients (β: 0.244, P < 0.001). In addition, there was a positive and significant relationship withdeep acting, a positive and significant relationship with perceived stress (β: 0.146, P = 0.036), a positive andsignificant relationship with surface acting (β: 0.246, P = 0.001) and a positive and significant relationshipwith emotional effort (β: 0.358, P < 0.001). There was a statistically significant positive correlation betweenthe emotional effort and deep acting (β: 0.415, P = 0.001) and surface acting (β: 0.317, P = 0.001) scores.Conclusions: It was found that the emotional labor subscales affect each other, and a positive correlationbetween surface acting, deep acting, and emotional effort was found. A slightly positive and significantcorrelation between emotional effort and job satisfaction was found. A positive correlation was foundbetween surface acting and perceived stress.