Research Article

Abstract

Prior research links adaptive humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing) with enhanced psychological well-being and maladaptive humor styles (aggressive and self-defeating) with worse psychological well-being, primarily through humor styles’ influence on individuals’ social interactions and efforts to positively reframe stressors. The present study examined the unique relation of each humor style with psychological well-being with a focus on understanding mechanisms of adjustment under highly stressful conditions. Ninety-nine parents of children with disabilities were surveyed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March 2020, and 79 parents completed follow-up surveys in July 2020. As predicted, at T1, self-enhancing humor was associated with less psychological distress and greater family satisfaction, self-defeating humor was associated with greater distress, and aggressive humor was associated with lower family satisfaction. Moreover, affiliative humor predicted decreased psychological distress over time, whereas self-defeating humor predicted increased psychological distress and decreased family satisfaction over time. Relations were largely mediated by caregiver positive reappraisal, family efforts to reframe daily disability-related challenges, and negative social interactions. Future research should further examine the influence of caregiver humor styles on family dynamics, family reframing norms, and caregiving efficacy.

Faculty Members

• Heidi L. Fritz - Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, USA

Themes

• Cognitive reappraisal and coping mechanisms
• Family dynamics during crises
• Impact of stress on families
• Humor styles and psychological well-being
• Caregiving for children with disabilities

Categories

• Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies
• Health sciences, general
• Clinical psychology
• Psychology
• Clinical child psychology
• Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies nec
• Counseling and applied psychology nec
• Developmental and child psychology
• Health sciences, other
• Health sciences
• Counseling and applied psychology
• Social sciences, other
• Health services research
• Research and experimental psychology
• Sociology, demography, and population studies
• Social sciences
• Social sciences nec
• Marriage and family therapy counseling
• Mental health, counseling, and therapy services and sciences
• Counseling psychology
• Sociology, general
• Sociology, demography, and population studies nec
• Public health, general
• Social psychology
• Cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics
• Public health