Longitudinal Associations Between Humor Styles and Psychosocial Adjustment in Adolescence.

Claire Louise Fox,Simon Christopher Hunter,Siân Emily Jones

doi:10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1065

Abstract

This study assessed the concurrent and prospective associations between psychosocial adjustment and four humor styles, two of which are adaptive (affiliative, self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive, self-defeating). Participants were 1,234 adolescents (52% female) aged 11-13 years, drawn from six secondary schools in England. Self-reports of psychosocial adjustment (loneliness, depressive symptomatology, and self-esteem) and humor styles were collected at two time points (fall and summer). In cross-lagged panel analyses, self-defeating humor was associated with an increase in both depressive symptoms and loneliness, and with a decrease in self-esteem. In addition, depressive symptoms predicted an increase in the use of self-defeating humor over time, indicating that these may represent a problematic spiral of thoughts and behaviors. Self-esteem was associated with an increase in the use of affiliative humor over the school year but not vice-versa. These results inform our understanding of the ways in which humor is associated with psychosocial adjustment in adolescence.

Highlights

This study assessed the concurrent and prospective associations between psychosocial adjustment and four humor styles, two of which are adaptive and two maladaptive
A series of t-tests found that boys reported using more aggressive humor than females at both Time 1 and Time 2
As noted by Martin (2007), there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that humor in adults is linked to better mental and physical health, but there is a lack of research on the social and emotional benefits of humor in children

Summary

Introduction

This study assessed the concurrent and prospective associations between psychosocial adjustment and four humor styles, two of which are adaptive (affiliative, self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive, self-defeating). Self-esteem was associated with an increase in the use of affiliative humor over the school year but not vice-versa. These results inform our understanding of the ways in which humor is associated with psychosocial adjustment in adolescence. Affiliative and self-enhancing humor are negatively correlated with depression and loneliness, and positively correlated with self-esteem. Kuiper et al (2004) found that aggressive humor was negatively correlated with perceptions of interpersonal skills that included the degree of emotional support one can provide and conflict management skills. Dyck and Holtzman (2013) noted that of all the four humor styles, aggressive humor has the weakest and most inconsistent findings, with many studies that have used the adult HSQ failing to find significant associations between aggressive humor and measures of psychological adjustment

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion