Despite the growing attention given to the study of humor, a measure in the Spanish language of people’s experience and enjoyment of humor in everyday life is still missing. The present study describes the development and validation of the EHV (from the Spanish Escala de Humor ante la Vida, Humor in Life Scale). In phase I, the items were developed using focus groups and interviews; their content validity was assessed through expert judgment. In phase II, the EHV was answered by two Mexican samples (N=1380), women and men, from 18 to 66 years; it was administered together with the Numeric Rating Scale of Humor and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, in both printed and electronic formats. The exploratory factor analysis supported the single factor structure and the confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate fit indices for the final eight-item scale; the factor structure was partially invariant between sexes. Reliability indices were satisfactory. Convergent and discriminant validity tests showed that the EHV is related to a global measure of humor and positive and negative affect. In sum, the results indicate that the EHV is a brief, valid and reliable measure to assess humor in life in Spanish speakers.

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue crear un instrumento para evaluar las actividades de tiempo libre en adultos. La influencia de las actividades de tiempo libre se ha estudiado en el desarrollo de conductas positivas y negativas que impactan al bienestar. La muestra constó de 587 padres de familia de la Ciudad de México, entre 25 y 65 años (M= 44.30, DE= 9.34), 79.5% de la muestra estaban casados o cohabitaban. La escala constó de 121 actividades, los participantes indicaron la frecuencia de participación en una escala Likert de 1 (nunca) a 5 (muy a menudo). El análisis factorial exploratorio arrojó 13 factores (66 ítems), que explican 61.30% de la varianza, el coeficiente de consistencia interna fue 0.94. La escala es una prueba válida y confiable de las actividades de tiempo libre, y puede ser utilizada satisfactoriamente en la investigación con muestras mexicanas.