Exploring Mental Health From the Perspective of DNA Methylation: Evidence From the Hospitality Employees

Keywords

Mental health; susceptibility genes; work-related stress

Abstract

Awareness of work-related stress or mental health has been increasing in global tourism, but there has often been a dilemma to deal with it properly. In this paper, we adopted the allostatic load model and differential susceptibility model to conduct an interdisciplinary study. Study 1 collected longitudinal data and adopted a latent class growth analysis to identify two major growth trajectories of mental health: escalating class and normative class. Study 2 showed that significant DNA methylation ( >10%) occurred at some loci of the target genes (NR3C1, FKBP5, NGFR, DRD3, and SLC6A4). The DNA methylation level of the escalating class was higher than the normative class in FKBP5, SLC6A4, and NGFR, which could be recognized as susceptibility genes of hotel employees in the stressful working environment. This study illustrated the potential of psychobiology in solving the mental health issues of hotel employees theoretically and practically.

Publication Date

9-2023

Original Citation

Xiong, W., Huang, M., Okumus, B., & Fan, F. (2023). Exploring mental health from the perspective of DNA methylation: evidence from the hospitality employees. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 32(6), 792–817. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2023.2199315

Document Type

Paper

Language

English

Source Title

Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management

Volume

32

Issue

6

College

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Location

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

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