Is Familism a Motivator or Stressor? Relationships Between Confucian Familism, Emotional Labor, Work-Family Conflict, and Emotional Exhaustion Among Chinese Teachers

Xiaoshuang Zhu; Guoxiu Tian; Hongbiao Yin; Wenjie He

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.766047

Is Familism a Motivator or Stressor? Relationships Between Confucian Familism, Emotional Labor, Work-Family Conflict, and Emotional Exhaustion Among Chinese Teachers

Front Psychol. 2021 Dec 2:12:766047. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.766047. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiaoshuang Zhu¹, Guoxiu Tian¹, Hongbiao Yin², Wenjie He¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Teacher Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
² Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

To reveal the cultural effect in the job demands-resources model, this study examined how Confucian familism, emotional labor, and work-family conflict (WFC) explain the variance in teachers' emotional exhaustion, with a focus on the mediating roles of emotional labor and WFC. With a sample of 3,312 teachers in China, the results of this study revealed that surface acting and expression of naturally felt emotion (ENFE) and WFC mediated the relationship between familism and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, familism positively predicted deep acting, ENFE, WFC, and emotional exhaustion, while negatively predicted surface acting. These findings suggest that Confucian familism may play the dual role of motivator and stressor for Chinese teachers' emotional labor and well-being. This study contributes to the job demands-resources theory by revealing the important role of cultural traditions and provides valuable information for interventions to sustain teacher well-being.

Keywords: emotional exhaustion; emotional labor; familism; job demands-resources model; work-family conflict.