Background

An increasing age of the workforce necessitates a better understanding of age-related differences in emotions at work to inform age-inclusive workplace policies and practices. This review critically evaluates how age relates to emotion-regulatory strategies at work (emotional labour and emotion regulation), emotional work demands, and associated health and work outcomes.

Methods

Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed studies examining relationships between age, emotion-regulatory strategies, emotional work demands, and health/work outcomes. A completed PRISMA 2020 checklist is provided in the Supplementary Materials. Twenty-six studies were included and synthesized narratively.

Results

Across studies, no generalisable pattern of age-related differences emerged. While several studies reported age differences in the associations between emotion-regulatory strategies and health or work outcomes, often indicating comparatively more favourable outcomes among older workers, these findings were not consistently observed across studies, with some studies reporting reversed or null effects. Moreover, studies reporting age differences varied in what aspect these differences reflected, including variation in the frequency or type of strategies used, as well as differences in how these strategies related to outcomes across age. Similarly, associations between emotional work demands and outcomes varied by age in some studies but did not follow a uniform pattern. Overall, the evidence suggests that while age-related differences in these associations are sometimes observed, they are inconsistent, not systematically associated with advantage or disadvantage for any age group, and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Conclusion

Age did not emerge as a robust determinant of how emotion-regulatory strategies or emotional work demands relate to health and work outcomes. The findings underscore the need for more integrative, theoretically grounded, and methodologically rigorous approaches that better account for how age, emotional work demands, regulation, and outcomes are linked, while addressing key conceptual and design challenges.

Trial registration

PROSPERO CRD42022300000, published on 10 May 2022.

This study examines how emotional demands and surface acting contribute to burnout and mental wellbeing among professionals in healthcare, care, and service roles. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 1,506 participants involved in frequent patient, care-receiver, or customer interactions. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), we tested a serial mediation model. Surface acting mediated the relationship between emotional demands and burnout, defined as exhaustion and disengagement. In turn, these burnout dimensions mediated a negative association with mental wellbeing. These effects were consistent across professional groups, indicating the widespread impact of emotional demands and surface acting across occupations. We found no significant linear or curvilinear age moderation effects in the relationships between emotional demands and surface acting, nor between surface acting and burnout. Only workers aged 60+ showed a slightly stronger reliance on surface acting in response to perceived (but not contact-related) emotional demands compared to those aged 50–59. The absence of broader age effects suggests that emotional demands and surface acting contribute to burnout and mental wellbeing similarly across ages. These findings underscore the importance of recognising emotional demands as key occupational hazards affecting workers across professions and throughout the working lifespan.

This study, based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, investigates how perceived and contact-related emotional demands contribute to burnout, and whether job resources -deep acting, meaning of work, work control, and social support at work-buffer these effects. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among professionals in healthcare, care, and human service roles (N = 1,506). Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine moderating effects of job resources on the relationships between emotional demands and the burnout dimensions of exhaustion and disengagement. Both types of emotional demands were positively associated with both burnout dimensions. While job resources were generally negatively associated with exhaustion and disengagement, they did not moderate the effects of emotional demands in the expected buffering direction. Instead, meaning of work and social support amplified the relationships between contact-related and perceived emotional demands, respectively, and exhaustion. Exploratory analyses revealed no significant linear or curvilinear age-based moderation, suggesting that these moderation patterns function similarly across age groups. Overall, the findings indicate that while job resources may reduce general burnout, they are not universally protective in emotionally demanding work. This study highlights the need to refine the JD-R assumption that resources consistently buffer job demands and underscores the importance of identifying alternative resources and targeted interventions in emotionally demanding roles.