Positive parenting prescriptions prevailing in Western countries encourage parents to regulate their emotions and, more specifically, to show more positive emotion to their children and control negative emotions while parenting. The beneficial effect of this practice on child development has been much documented, but its possible costs for parents have been much less researched. The current study borrowed the well-known emotional labor framework from organizational psychology to examine this issue. We sought to answer five questions in particular: (1) Do parents perceive display rules? (i.e., do they feel pressured to up-regulate positive emotions and down-regulate negative emotions while parenting?) (2) Do parents make regulatory efforts to comply with these rules? (3) Is this costly? (4) Is it possible that these regulatory efforts are associated with higher risk of parental burnout? (5) Are there strategies that render this effort less costly? We investigated these questions in a sample of 347 parents. The results revealed that parents perceive emotional display rules, which were associated with more regulatory efforts and then a higher vulnerability to parental burnout. How parents meet display rules also matters, in that regulating emotions superficially (i.e., surface acting) is more detrimental than regulating genuinely (i.e., deep acting). Overall, these results support the translation of the emotional labor framework to the parenting context, which helps us understand how external pressures on parents may increase parental burnout.
BaiS.RepettiR. L.SperlingJ. B. (2016). Children’s expressions of positive emotion are sustained by smiling, touching, and playing with parents and siblings: A naturalistic observational study of family life. Developmental Psychology, 52(1), 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039854
2.
BornsteinM. H. (2015). Children’s parents. In LernerRichard M. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (Vol. 4). John Wiley & Sons.
3.
BrethertonI. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759
4.
BrotheridgeC. M.GrandeyA. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of “people work”. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60(1), 17–39. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1815
5.
BrotheridgeC. M.LeeR. T. (1998). On the dimensionality of emotional labour: Development and validation of the emotional labour scale [Paper presentation]. First Conference on Emotions in Organizational Life, San Diego, USA.
6.
BrotheridgeC. M.LeeR. T. (2002). Testing a conservation of resources model of the dynamics of emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7(1), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.7.1.57
CarrerasJ.CarterA. S.HeberleA.ForbesD.GrayS. A. O. (2019). Emotion regulation and parent distress: Getting at the heart of sensitive parenting among parents of preschool children experiencing high sociodemographic risk. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(11), 2953–2962. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01471-z
9.
ChaplinT. M. (2015). Gender and emotion expression: A developmental contextual perspective. Emotion Review: Journal of the International Society for Research on Emotion, 7(1), 14–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073914544408
10.
ChenY.HainesJ.CharltonB. M.Van der WeeleT. J. (2019). Positive parenting improves multiple aspects of health and well-being in young adulthood. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(7), 684–691. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0602-x
11.
DixT. M. (1991). The affective organization of parenting: Adaptive and maladaptive processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.110.1.3
12.
FairclothC. (2014). Intensive parenting and the expansion of parenting. In LeeE.BristowJ.FairclothC.MacvarishJ. (Eds.), Parenting culture studies (pp. 25–50). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137304612_2
13.
GabrielA. S.DanielsM. A.DiefendorffJ. M.GregurasG. J. (2015). Emotional labor actors: A latent profile analysis of emotional labor strategies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 863–879. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037408
14.
GoldbergL. S.GrandeyA. A. (2007). Display rules versus display autonomy: Emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and task performance in a call center simulation. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(3), 301–318. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.301
15.
GoldinP. R.McRaeK.RamelW.GrossJ. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. Biological Psychiatry, 63(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031
16.
GrandeyA. A. (2003). When “the show must go on”: Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal, 46(1), 86–96. https://doi.org/10.5465/30040678
17.
GrandeyA. A.DiefendorffJ. M.RuppD. E. (Eds.). (2013). Emotional labor in the 21st century: Diverse perspectives on the psychology of emotion regulation at work. Routledge.
18.
GrandeyA. A.SayreG. M. (2019). Emotional labor: Regulating emotions for a wage. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(2), 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418812771
19.
GrossJ. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224–237. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.224
20.
GruberJ.PrinsteinM. J.ClarkL. A.RottenbergJ.AbramowitzJ. S.AlbanoA. M.AldaoA.BorelliJ. L.ChungT.DavilaJ.ForbesE. E.GeeD. G.HallG. C. N.HallionL. S.HinshawS. P.HofmannS. G.HollonS. D.JoormannJ.KazdinA. E.…WeinstockL. M. (2020). Mental health and clinical psychological science in the time of COVID-19: Challenges, opportunities, and a call to action. The American Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000707
21.
HochschildA. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
22.
HoghughiM. (2004). Parenting—an introduction. In HoghughiM.LongN. (Eds.), Handbook of parenting: Theory and research for practice (pp. 1–18). SAGE.
23.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 424–453. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.3.4.424
24.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
25.
HülshegerU. R.ScheweA. F. (2011). On the costs and benefits of emotional labor: A meta-analysis of three decades of research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(3), 361–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022876
26.
Kammeyer-MuellerJ. D.RubensteinA. L.LongD. M.OdioM. A.BuckmanB. R.ZhangY.Halvorsen-GanepolaM. D. K. (2013). A meta-analytic structural model of dispositional affectivity and emotional labor. Personnel Psychology, 66(1), 47–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12009
27.
KarnilowiczH. R.WatersS. F.MendesW. B. (2019). Not in front of the kids: Effects of parental suppression on socialization behaviors during cooperative parent–child interactions. Emotion, 19(7), 1183–1191. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000527
28.
KlineR. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
29.
LeB. M.ImpettE. A. (2016). The costs of suppressing negative emotions and amplifying positive emotions during parental caregiving. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(3), 323–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216629122
30.
LeB. M.ImpettE. A. (2019). Parenting goal pursuit is linked to emotional well-being, relationship quality, and responsiveness. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(3), 879–904. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407517747417
31.
LeB. M.SakalukJ. K.DayL. C.ImpettE. A. (2019). How gender, age, and socioeconomic status predict parenting goal pursuit. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(10), 3313–3338. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407518818375
LiuX.-Y.KwanH. K.WuL.-Z.ZhengX.-M. (2018). Emotional labor and family quality: The role of work-family positive spillover. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(6), 1113–1138. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1180313
34.
ManassisK.BradleyS.GoldbergS.HoodJ.SwinsonR. P. (1994). Attachment in mothers with anxiety disorders and their children. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(8), 1106–1113. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199410000-00006
McRaeK. (2016). Cognitive emotion regulation: A review of theory and scientific findings. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 10, 119–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.06.004
37.
MeeussenL.Van LaarC. (2018). Feeling pressure to be a perfect mother relates to parental burnout and career ambitions. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2113–2113. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02113
38.
MikolajczakM.BriandaM. E.AvalosseH.RoskamI. (2018). Consequences of parental burnout: Its specific effect on child neglect and violence. Child Abuse & Neglect, 80, 134–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.025
39.
MikolajczakM.GrossJ. J.RoskamI. (2019). Parental burnout: What is it and why does it matter?Clinical Psychological Science, 7(6), 1319–1329.
40.
MikolajczakM.MenilC.LuminetO. (2007). Explaining the protective effect of trait emotional intelligence regarding occupational stress: Exploration of emotional labour processes. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(5), 1107–1117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.01.003
41.
MikolajczakM.RoskamI. (2018). A theoretical and clinical framework for parental burnout: The balance between risks and resources (BR(2)). Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 886–886. PubMed (29946278). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00886
42.
MikolajczakM.TranV.BrotheridgeC. M.GrossJ. J. (2009). Chapter 11 using an emotion regulation framework to predict the outcomes of emotional labor. In CharmineE. J. H.NealM. A.WilfredJ. Z. (Eds.), Emotions in groups, organizations and cultures (pp. 245–273). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1746-9791(2009)0000005013
43.
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDD). (2020). Positive parenting tips. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDD), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/index.html
44.
RichardsJ. M.GrossJ. J. (1999). Composure at any cost? The cognitive consequences of emotion suppression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(8), 1033–1044. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672992511010
45.
RichardsJ. M.GrossJ. J. (2000). Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one’s cool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(3), 410–424. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.3.410
46.
RodrigoM. J. (2010). Promoting positive parenting in Europe: New challenges for the European Society for Developmental Psychology. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7(3), 281–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405621003780200
47.
RoskamI.AguiarJ.AkgunE.ArikanG.ArtaviaM.AvalosseH.AunolaK.BaderM.BahatiC.BarhamE. J.BessonE.BeyersW.BoujutE.BriandaM. E.Brytek-MateraA.CarbonneauN.CésarF.ChenB.-B.DorardG.MikolajczakM. (2021). Parental burnout around the globe: A 42-country study. Affective Science. 2(1), 58–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-020-00028-4
48.
RoskamI.BriandaM.-E.MikolajczakM. (2018). A step forward in the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout: The parental burnout assessment (PBA). Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 758. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00758
49.
RoskamI.RaesM.-E.MikolajczakM. (2017). Exhausted parents: Development and preliminary validation of the parental burnout inventory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 163. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00163
50.
RyanR. M.MartinA.Brooks-GunnJ. (2006). Is one good parent good enough? Patterns of mother and father parenting and child cognitive outcomes at 24 and 36 months. Parenting, 6(2–3), 211–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2006.9681306
51.
SandersM. R.MazzucchelliT. G. (2017). The power of positive parenting: Transforming the lives of children, parents, and communities using the triple P system. Oxford University Press.
52.
Sanz-VergelA. I.Rodríguez-MuñozA.BakkerA. B.DemeroutiE. (2012). The daily spillover and crossover of emotional labor: Faking emotions at work and at home. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 81(2), 209–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.07.003
53.
SchrodtP. (2020). Emotion labor with parents as a mediator of family communication patterns and young adult children’s mental well-being. Journal of Family Communication, 20(1), 66–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2019.1661250
54.
SchrodtP.O’MaraC. (2019). The development and validation of the emotion labor in families scale: Associations with emotion regulation, feeling caught, and relational satisfaction in parent-child relationships. Communication Quarterly, 67(4), 383–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2019.1596143
55.
VerhellenE. (2000). Convention on the rights of the child: Background, motivation, strategies, main themes (3rd ed.). Gent University, Children’s Rights Centre, H.
WhartonA. S.EricksonR. J. (1993). Managing emotions on the job and at home: Understanding the consequences of multiple emotional roles. The Academy of Management Review, 18(3), 457–486. https://doi.org/10.2307/258905
58.
WhartonA. S.EricksonR. J. (1995). The consequences of caring: Exploring the links between women’s job and family emotion work. The Sociological Quarterly, 36(2), 273–296.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
