Perceived Parental Warmth and Rejection in Childhood as Predictors of Humor Styles and Subjective Happiness

Abstract

This research examined maternal and paternal w armth (acceptance) and rejection (hostility and aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection), as remembered by young adults, in relation to humor styles and subjective happiness. A total of 283 Lebanese college students completed the Arabic versions of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for Mother and Father, the Humor Styles Questionnaire, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. As predicted, parental warmth correlated positively and parental overall rejection and specific rejection scores correlated negatively w ith subjective happiness ratings. Parental warmth tended to correlate positively with use of adaptive humor styles, and negatively with use of maladaptive humor styles, while parental rejection tended to correlate positively with use of maladaptive humor styles and negatively with use of adaptive humor styles. I n addition, self-enhancing humor mediated the relationships between parental warmth and rejection and subjective happiness. Overall, the findings are consistent w ith the view that parental w armth and rejection might contribute to the development of particular styles of humor, which in turn may contribute to later happiness and well-being.

Humor Styles in Socially Maladjusted Girls and Boys: a Resilience Perspective

“…Interestingly, unlike most prior studies (Frewen, Brinker, & Martin, 2008;Greengross, 2008;Charytonik, 2009in Hornowska & Charytonik, 2011Sołomin, 2011in Hornowska, Charytonik, 2011, this significant difference was unrelated to aggressive humor, but rather it pertained to self-defeating humor, the level (intensity) of which proved significantly higher in the girls' subset than in the boys' (p < 0.05). Up to now, only a few studies have reported significant gender-related differences for aggressive and self-defeating humor styles (Kazarin & Martin, 2004;Cassaretto & Martinez, 2009;Kazarin, Moghnie, & Martin, 2010). Martin and colleagues (2003) claimed that self-defeating (as well as aggressive) humor is correlated with anger, hostility, irritability, and aggressiveness.…”

Humor From The Perspective Of Positive Psychology. Implications For Research On Development In Adulthood

“…These results remain in agreement with the results obtained by Martina and colleagues (2003;cf. also Martin, 2007) and in several other studies (e.g., Chen & Martin, 2007;Kaoru-ei et al, 2009;Kazarian & Martin, 2004Kazarian et al, 2010;Tümkaya, 2011). All the mentioned Authors revealed sex-related differences in the level of nonconstructive humor styles (aggressive and self-defeating) -a significantly higher intensity thereof was found in men when compared to women.…”

“…The role of emotional experiences in relationships with parents that are favourable for personal growth as well as harmful humor styles were studied by Kazarian, Moghnie and Martin (2010). They analysed the relations existing between parental acceptance and rejection in the retrospect of adults and the intensity of their humor styles as well as their subjective happiness.…”

Maternal Distress and Hostile Parenting: Impact on Physical and Indirect Aggression in 6 to 9 Years Old Boys and Girls

“…It measures the relationship between parent and child on four subscales: rejection, neglect, aggression/hostility and warmth. Inline with coercion theory, only the scale measuring parental aggression/hostility was used here.The overall questionnaire (total score) and the four subscales have been shown to possess an internal consistency in excess of 0.70 [23]. In our study, the alpha coefficient for this scale was calculated at 0.87.…”