Beyond pain intensity and catastrophizing: The association between self‐enhancing humour style and the adaptation of individuals with chronic pain

Abstract

Many questions regarding the process by which self-enhancing humour style has an effect on chronic pain individuals' adjustment remain unanswered. The aim of the present study was to analyse the association of self-enhancing humour style with adjustment in a sample of individuals with chronic pain, over and above the role of catastrophizing and pain intensity. Adjustment was assessed using measures of depression, pain interference and flourishing. We also examined the indirect association between self-enhancing humour style and adjustment via pain acceptance. The study included 427 patients with heterogeneous chronic pain conditions. The study hypotheses were tested using three multiple linear regression analyses, one for each of the criterion variables. Consistent with the study hypothesis, both direct and indirect associations were found between self-enhancing humour style and depressive symptoms, pain interference and flourishing via pain acceptance. Self-enhancing humour style could potentially help individuals with chronic pain to gain perspective and distance themselves from the situation through the acceptance of pain-related negative emotions. Very few studies have investigated the relationship between humour styles and adjustment in chronic pain samples. The results of the current study support the idea that adaptive dispositional traits, such as patient's self- enhancing humour style, play a role in the adaptation of individuals with chronic pain. Given that the association between self-enhancing humour style and adjustment evidenced an indirect association through pain acceptance, training in the use of humour, as individuals with self-enhancing humour style do, might be a useful addition to ACT treatment.