Humor Styles and Psychological Wellbeing of Adolescents with and without Orthopedic Disability

Abstract

The quality of possessing a good sense of humor contributes to the enhancement of psychological wellbeing of adolescents. Apart from the other different skills for having greater and healthier sense of psychological wellbeing, the trait of good sense of humor has been proposed for facilitating in meeting the challenges of everyday lives of adolescents. The study was conducted to assess and compare humor styles and psychological wellbeing of normal healthy and adolescents with orthopedic disability. The sample comprised of 120 male and female adolescents (normal healthy = 60, adolescents with orthopedic disability = 60). The age of participants ranged from 12 to 18 years. Psychological Wellbeing and Humor Style measures were administered to assess the humor styles and psychological wellbeing of adolescents. A 2 × 2 factorial design was employed. The analysis showed that females with orthopedic disability scored higher on the affiliative and self-enhancing styles of humor as compared to their male counterparts. Males scored higher on autonomy measure whereas females scored higher on positive relations and self- acceptance measures of psychological wellbeing. Overall, the gender differences were evident between adolescents with orthopedic disability and normal healthy groups on almost all the measures of humor styles and psychological well-being.