Emotion labor as a mediator of relational risk and quality in the context of family secrets

Abstract

This study extended communication privacy management theory by examining the associations between family members’ relational risk of revealing a secret and their emotion labor, investigating the impact of emotion labor on relational quality, and testing whether emotion labor explains the relationship between relational risk and quality. Participants (n = 454) completed an online survey by recalling a family secret and reporting their emotion labor (i.e., surface and deep acting) and relational quality with family members. Relational risk was negatively associated with relational quality and positively associated with both surface and deep acting. Additionally, both surface and deep acting were negatively associated with relational quality between secret keepers and with the rest of the family who did not know the secret. However, only surface acting mediated the relationship between relational risk and quality between secret keepers. Findings demonstrated that emotion labor is valuable for understanding how family secrets impact relational quality.