The Effect of Emotional Labor on Young Nurses' Job Burnout: The Mediating Role of Social Support and Emotional Regulation

AIM: To evaluate the impact of emotional labor on job burnout among young nurses and investigate the mediating roles of social support and emotional regulation. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. METHODS: The cross-sectional study recruited 1103 young nurses using convenience sampling from six tertiary-level hospitals in Henan Province, China. Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey, which included a self-administered socio-demographic questionnaire, the Emotional Labor Scale (ELS), the Social Support Scale (SSS), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory Scale (MBI). Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 and AMOS 26.0. RESULTS: Job burnout had a significant effect on emotional labor, social support and emotional regulation. Mediation analysis revealed that social support and emotional regulation partially mediated the predictive relationship between emotional labor and job burnout. The findings suggest that emotional labor among young nurses indirectly influences their job burnout through social support and emotional regulation. This study provides nursing administrators and healthcare policymakers with a resource to build a supportive environment to increase young nurses' emotional regulation abilities and to decrease their job burnout. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.