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Previous research has illustrated that older workers have high emotional competence (EC) that could enable them to effectively manage interpersonal conflict. However, it is still unclear whether age, potentially via EC, also influences a variety of conflict management behaviors. To address this question, we present a systematic review of the literature on the direct relationships between age, EC, and conflict management, and on EC as a potential mediator. We classify conflict management behaviors using the dual concern model (e.g., De Dreu, Evers, Beersma, Kluwer, & Nauta, 2001), and identified 15 studies on age-related conflict management, and 14 studies on EC and conflict management. Unfortunately, we found that none of the previous studies examined EC as a mediator between age and conflict behaviors. Overall, our review does reveal a positive age trend for EC, avoiding, compromising, and problem-solving, and a negative age trend for forcing. Additionally, EC seems to be positively related to problem-solving, compromising, and yielding. We discuss potential moderators and the role of EC as a potential mediator.

Addressing health-related risks for employees in the service sector, we identify emotion regulation (ER) ability—a dimension of emotional intelligence—as a promising resource with potential for facilitating emotional labor. We use an event-sampling design to investigate whether person-level ER ability moderates situation-dependent relationships of three different emotional labor strategies with emotional exhaustion in a beneficial way. Study 1 included data from 861 customer interactions from 187 service employees in the financial sector. All measures were self-ratings. Study 2 included 479 interactions from 101 employees in different service occupations; following a multimethod approach, ER ability was additionally assessed with peer ratings and an objective test. Controlling for age and gender, hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated main effects of event-level surface acting and automatic regulation on emotional exhaustion in both studies. Multilevel results showed that ER ability—in contrast to the global score of emotional intelligence—moderated relationships of three different emotional labor strategies with exhaustion. In particular, resource loss via surface acting was buffered. Overall, findings contribute to knowledge on emotional abilities in emotional labor processes, and differences in operationalizing and assessing ER ability. Practical implications concerning employee health are given.

Arrested lesions are more resistant to a new cariogenic challenge, but the degree of surface rehardening needed to achieve this is unknown. The aim of this in situ study was to analyze the acid susceptibilityof newly formed and arrested enamel lesions with known arrestment period and surface microhardness. Six individuals wore an oral appliance with human enamel blocks for 3 periods: (1) 21 days of demineralization due to plaque accumulation and cariogenic challenge, 4 blocks/person (nonfluoride dentifrice); (2) 75 days of arrestment, brushing with fluoride dentifrice, 2 blocks/person; (3) 21 days of demineralization, 5 blocks/person: 1 sound block, 2 demineralized blocks and 2 demineralized and arrested blocks (nonfluoride dentifrice). After period 1, all blocks showed a dull whitish surface characteristic of active, noncavitated lesions. After arrestment, the surfaces assumed a shiny and smooth aspect. The Knoop hardness number (KHN, mean ± SD) of the sound blocks was 307.6 ± 15.0. After period 1, microhardness decreased significantly to 162.6 ± 33.5 KHN (p < 0.001). The microhardness of subsequently arrested lesions (279.8 ± 23.1 KHN) was significantly greater than after demineralization, but lower than that of sound enamel. Arrested enamel did not show a decrease in microhardness when subjected to a new cariogenic challenge and after the same cariogenic challenge showed similar microhardness to sound enamel. The results showed that, although noncavitated lesions probably take years to reach microhardness levels like sound enamel, this does not imply that special care, in addition to the ones normally given to sound tooth surfaces, is necessary.

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