Stress and Health 27: e173–e187 (2011) © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. e173 RESEARCH ARTICLE Costs and Benefits of Supportive versus Disciplinary Emotion Regulation Strategies in Teachers Larissa K. Barber 1 * † , Matthew J. Grawitch 2 , Russell L. Carson 3 & Costas N. Tsouloupas 3 1 Quantitative Learning Center, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA 2 School for Professional Studies, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA 3 Department of Kinesiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA Abstract Using 659 K-12 teachers, this study explored the extent to which well-being outcomes were affected by differential emotion regulation strategies (surface versus deep acting) for positive emotion expression (supportive display rules) versus negative emotion expression (disciplinary display rules). Analyses showed that almost half of the teachers reported disciplinary display rules as important for effectively doing their job (as compared with 97% for supportive display rules), and these perceptions were associated with increased disciplinary surface and deep acting strategies. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposed four-factor structure of emotional regulation strategies, and provided the best fit in relation to two alternative models (surface versus deep acting and supportive versus disci- plinary). A structural equation model revealed that both supportive surface acting and disciplinary surface acting positively predicted emotional exhaustion, and both negatively predicted personal accomplishment. However, only supportive deep acting had a positive relationship with personal accomplishment. Disciplinary deep acting was unrelated to the study outcomes. These findings indicate that disciplinary emotion regulation may have the same costs to emotional exhaustion in teachers as supportive regulation, but fewer benefits in terms of increasing personal accomplishment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 10 September 2009; Accepted 17 September 2010; Revised 14 September 2010 Keywords emotional labour; burnout; job stress; teachers; self-regulation; psychological well-being *Correspondence Larissa K. Barber, Quantitative Learning Center, Smith College, 2nd Floor Neilson Library, Northampton, MA 01063, USA. † Email: lbarber@smith.edu Published online 26 October in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/smi.1357 Introduction The self-regulation of employee emotions is of impor- tance to organizations wishing to simultaneously opti- mize employee performance and well-being. Employees who effectively manage their thoughts, behaviours and emotions are more productive (Bagozzi, 1992; Law, Wong, & Song, 2004; Locke & Latham, 2002) and expe- rience less work strain (Pomaki, Maes, & ter Doest, 2004; Slaski & Cartwright, 2002). However, prolonged emotion regulation because of a mismatch between felt emotions and emotions that one is required to display on the job can lead to negative psychological outcomes, particularly emotional exhaustion (Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002; Brotheridge & Lee, 2003; Grandey, 2003). Increased emotional exhaustion has also been linked with a number of negative work outcomes, such as lower affective commitment and greater turnover intentions (Cropanzano, Rupp, & Byrne, 2003).