No Laughing Matter: How Humor Styles Relate to Feelings of Loneliness and Not Mattering

MacDonald, Kristi Baerg; Kumar, Anjali; Schermer, Julie Aitken

doi:10.3390/bs10110165

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Therefore, the AMS is a unidimensional measure. These results are consistent with a psychometric analysis conducted on the AMS responses of a sample of undergraduates in a management study program (MacDonald et al, 2020). The next CFA with anti-mattering and mattering items both included evaluated the presence of two separate, but correlated factors.…”

Section: Confirmatory Factor Analysessupporting

confidence: 81%

The Anti-Mattering Scale: Development, Psychometric Properties and Associations With Well-Being and Distress Measures in Adolescents and Emerging Adults

Flett

Nepon

Goldberg

et al. 2021

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

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Previous work has focused on positive feelings of mattering, which pertain to the human need to feel significant. In the current article, we examine a complementary yet distinct construct involving feelings of not mattering that may arise from being marginalized and experiences that heighten a sense of being insignificant to others. We also describe the development, validation, and research applications of the Anti-Mattering Scale. The Anti-Mattering Scale (AMS) is a five-item inventory assessing feelings of not mattering to other people. Psychometric analyses of data from samples of emerging adults and adolescents confirmed that the AMS comprises one factor with high internal consistency and adequate validity. Our findings suggest that individuals who feel like they do not matter to others have a highly negative self-view, insecure attachment, and perceived deficits in meeting key psychological needs. Analyses established that links between elevated AMS scores and levels of depression, social anxiety, and loneliness. Most notably, scores on this new measure predicted unique variance in key outcomes beyond the variance attributable to other predictors. Overall, these results attest to the research utility and clinical potential of the AMS as an instrument examining the tendency of certain people to experience a profound sense of not mattering to others in ways that represent a unique source of risk, social disconnection, and personal vulnerability.

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Section: Confirmatory Factor Analysessupporting

confidence: 81%

The Anti-Mattering Scale: Development, Psychometric Properties and Associations With Well-Being and Distress Measures in Adolescents and Emerging Adults

Flett

Nepon

Goldberg

et al. 2021

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

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“…For future HSQ development, then, researchers should consider reducing the number of options. Our data show that a five-point scale outperforms a seven-point scale, but we think researchers should explore other rating scales when revising the HSQ, such as the four-point scale used in the Italian HSQ [27] or further examining the three-point scale explored in recent work [26]. The ideal rating scale for an intended respondent population is an empirical issue, so future scale development work should empirically evaluate its rating scale relative to promising alternatives.…”

Section: Rating Scale Analysis: Is Seven Points Too Many?mentioning

confidence: 83%

“…The HSQ was developed with a seven-point Likert-type rating scale, a common number in the self-report assessment of individual differences, and most published research appears to have used seven response options. Many researchers, however, have used five-point scales in their HSQ research [24,25], and some have used three-point scales [26]. Some translations of the HSQ have adopted other rating scales, such as the four-point scale used in the Italian version [27].…”

Section: Rating Scale Analysis: Is Seven Points Too Many?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Time to Renovate the Humor Styles Questionnaire? An Item Response Theory Analysis of the HSQ

Silvia¹,

Rodriguez²

2020

Preprint

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The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) is one of the most popular self-report scales in humor research. The present research conducted a forward-looking psychometric analysis grounded in Rasch and item response theory models, which have not been applied to the HSQ thus far. Regarding strengths, the analyses found very good evidence for reliability and dimensionality and essentially zero gender-based differential item functioning, indicating no gender bias in the items. Regarding opportunities for future development, the analyses suggested that (1) the 7-point rating scale performs poorly relative to a 5-point scale; (2) the affiliative subscale is far too easy to endorse and much easier than the other subscales; (3) the four subscales show problematic variation in their readability and proportion of reverse-scored items; and (4) a handful of items with poor discrimination and high local dependence are easy targets for scale revision. Taken together, the findings suggest that the HSQ, as it nears the two-decade mark, has many strengths but would benefit from light remodeling.

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“…The construct of anti-mattering is in the early stages of development and has been examined far less frequently than mattering (Flett, 2018a). Some studies have found strong cross-sectional associations between loneliness and anti-mattering (MacDonald et al, 2020;McComb et al, 2020). In a recent study, a positive association between anti-mattering and distress (i.e., stress, anxiety, and depression) was found, although these data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic (Besser et al, 2020).…”

Section: Mattering and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Depression Symptoms, Mattering, and Anti-mattering: Longitudinal Associations in Young Adulthood

Krygsman

Farrell

Brittain

et al. 2021

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

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We examined the dynamic interplay of depression symptoms, mattering (i.e., self-evaluation of importance or significance to others), and anti-mattering across four years of development in young adulthood (age 20–23; N = 452) using a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM). Support for a transactional model between anti-mattering and depression symptoms was found. Specifically, anti-mattering positively predicted later depression symptoms and depression symptoms consistently predicted later anti-mattering. Depression symptoms also shared a negative association with later mattering but not the reverse, supporting a symptoms-driven model of depression symptoms and mattering. Auto-regressive paths, residual covariances, and cross-lagged paths were invariant over time. Accounting for gender, household income, parental education, and fear of COVID-19 as covariates did not change the results. The stability of mattering and anti-mattering suggest careful consideration of how to effectively change these patterns. The implications for assessment and intervention on mattering or anti-mattering in the prevention and treatment of depression are discussed.

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No Laughing Matter: How Humor Styles Relate to Feelings of Loneliness and Not Mattering

Cited by 22 publications

References 35 publications

The Anti-Mattering Scale: Development, Psychometric Properties and Associations With Well-Being and Distress Measures in Adolescents and Emerging Adults

The Anti-Mattering Scale: Development, Psychometric Properties and Associations With Well-Being and Distress Measures in Adolescents and Emerging Adults

Time to Renovate the Humor Styles Questionnaire? An Item Response Theory Analysis of the HSQ

Depression Symptoms, Mattering, and Anti-mattering: Longitudinal Associations in Young Adulthood

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