Influence of Emotional Labour and Stress on Health Functioning of Classical Pentecostal Clergy in Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

The research set out to explore how stress, burnout, psychological flexibility, and peer support interact to mediate and moderate the effects of emotional labour on the social, emotional, and psychological well-being of the Classical Pentecostal clergy. The research adopted a descriptive research design to explore and assess the relationships and interactions among variables. The study population was 439 clerics who had served two years or more in three Classical Pentecostal Churches in the Central Region of Ghana. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to ensure a representative sample of the population. Three hundred and sixty-four members of the Classical Pentecostal clergy were thus selected using Krejcie and Morgan’s Table to whom questionnaire were administered. Reliability of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, yielding values above 0.70 for all constructs. The data gathered was analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), employing the PLS algorithm for hypothesis testing. The investigation yielded non-significant implications of emotional labour on health functioning, whilst the effect of burnout and stress on health functioning of the Classical Pentecostal clergy was significant. The study also revealed that stress was predicted by emotional labour and mediated the relation between emotional labour and burnout which eventually had a statistically significant effect on the health functioning of the Pentecostal clergy. The study recommends the implementation of extensive skills training programmes centred on emotional labour for the Classical Pentecostal clergy