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 of emotional 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 2019 Material and Methods: In this study, 198 participants were selected through simple random sampling. The data collection tools used were a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Emotional Labor Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive data are presented as mean, standard deviation, number, and percentage. 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 correlation with deep acting (β: 0.148, P = 0.038), a positive correlation with emotional effort (β: 0.371, P < 0.025), a negative and significant relationship with a lack of staff (β: −0.227, P < 0.001) and a positive correlation with the number of patients (β: 0.244, P < 0.001). In addition, there was a positive and significant relationship with deep acting, a positive and significant relationship with perceived stress (β: 0.146, P = 0.036), a positive and significant relationship with surface acting (β: 0.246, P = 0.001) and a positive and significant relationship with emotional effort (β: 0.358, P < 0.001). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the 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 correlation between surface acting, deep acting, and emotional effort was found. A slightly positive and significant correlation between emotional effort and job satisfaction was found. A positive correlation was found between surface acting and perceived stress.