(PS13-A25) Emotional Labor in Mental Health Clinicians: A Systematic Review of Surface Acting, Deep Acting, and Wellbeing Symptoms

Background. Individuals who provide psychological therapy are required to regulate their emotional expression to fulfil the requirements of their occupational roles. While associations have been drawn between this regulation (‘emotional labor’) and adverse wellbeing in the broader population, there has been little empirical examination of the effects of emotional labor in mental health clinicians. Since therapists have shown a greater capacity to downregulate their emotional experiences, understanding whether these effects are observed within this unique population is critical to improving wellbeing within the clinical workforce. This study examines the extant literature on this topic.

Methods. A systematic review was conducted, which looked at the association between specific emotional labor strategies and wellbeing-related symptoms in the context of workers who provide mental health care. The review was pre-registered with PROSPERO.

Results. Of 1350 records obtained from four databases, five studies met criteria for inclusion in the review. The included studies sampled mental health nurses, licensed professional school counsellors, and school psychologists. The results showed that surface acting (i.e., faking or suppressing emotion) was consistently associated with poorer wellbeing, while deep acting (i.e., conjuring up a desired emotion) was an inconsistent predictor of wellbeing.

Conclusions. Overall, our findings of the review provide preliminary evidence that the effects of emotional labor in the general population are broadly consistent with the effects identified in the present study. The limitations imposed by the limited extant literature highlight a key gap in the emotional labor literature and a key area for future research.