The Spanish version of the Emotional Labour Scale (ELS): a validation study.

Aim: To validate the Spanish version of the Emotional Labour Scale (ELS), an instrument widely used to understand how professionals working with people face emotional labor in their daily job.

Method: An observational, cross-sectional and multicenter survey was used. Nursing students and their clinical tutors (n=211) completed the self-reported ELS when the clinical practice period was over. First order and second order Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were estimated in order to test the factor structure of the scale.

Conclusions: The results of the CFA confirm a factor structure of the scale with six first order factors (duration, frequency, intensity, variety, surface acting and deep acting) and two larger second order factors named Demands (duration, frequency, intensity and variety) and Acting (surface acting and deep acting) establishing the validity of the Spanish version of the ELS.