An Analysis of Social Stressors with Clients, Emotional Labor Strategies, and Disengagement: A Diary Study on Social Work

The present seven-day diary study evaluated emotional labor strategies as mediators of the relationship between social stressors and disengagement on a short-term and intra-individual basis. The expectation was that surface acting and deep acting should precede higher disengagement. Before and after work, 63 social workers completed daily questions on social stressors with clients, emotional labor strategies, and disengagement. Multilevel analyses of up to 236 daily measurements revealed that more intense social stressors with clients predicted more intense surface acting, deep acting, and disengagement after work. Deep acting anteceded higher disengagement. An analysis of the indirect effects presented a significant positive indirect path from social stressors with clients via deep acting to disengagement. These findings bring to light how emotional labor strategies and disengaging work styles, despite being maladaptive long-term, may have a beneficial function for social workers on a day-to-day basis and intra-individual level.