Longitudinal associations between humor styles and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence

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Fox, Claire Louise and Hunter, Simon Christopher and Jones, Siân Emily (2016) Longitudinal associations between humor styles and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12 (3). pp. 377-389. (https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1065)

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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.

ORCID iDs

Fox, Claire Louise, Hunter, Simon Christopher ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3922-1252 and Jones, Siân Emily;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)