The development and validation of the emotion labor in families scale: Associations with emotion regulation, feeling caught, and relational satisfaction in parent-child relationships

Abstract

In this study, we developed and validated a new inventory that assesses emotion labor in parent-child relationships. Participants included 230 young adults who reported on the frequency with which they engaged in emotion labor with both parents. Results produced a 24-item inventory that assesses young adults’ surface acting, deep acting, and emotional effort when having conversations with their mother and father, labeled the Emotion Labor in Families (ELF) scale. Tests of concurrent and discriminant validity supported the construct validity of the ELF scale, although the dimension of emotional effort was largely unassociated with the validity measures included in this report.

Keywords:

• emotion labor
• emotion regulation
• feeling caught
• parent-child relationships
• relational satisfaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.