The development of a humor styles questionnaire for younger children

Abstract

Despite the adaptation of the humor styles questionnaire for older children a measure suitable for children below the age of eleven was needed. The current research involved three separate studies leading to the creation of the humor styles questionnaire for younger children (HSQ-Y), suitable for those aged 8-11 years. Study one involved the development of a measure to assess aggressive and affiliative humor. Subsequently, study two involved the adaptation of the measure to include all four humor styles, which was administered to children alongside a measure of friendship quality. To provide further validation for the HSQ-Y as a measure, study three involved the administration of the HSQ-Y twice over a three week period and peer reports of the four humor styles. Several measures of psychosocial adjustment were also included. The HSQ-Y was found to be a reliable and valid measure of the four humor styles in children aged 8-11 years. Associations between the humor styles and psychosocial adjustment variables were also found, supporting the discriminant validity of the measure.Keywords: children, humor, humor styles, psychosocial adjustment. 1 IntroductionResearch which explores the social and emotional functions of humor has increased in recent years. Work exploring these functions in children however, is noticeably lacking (Martin, 2007). According to McGhee's (1974) four stage model of humor development, children reach the ultimate stage of development at around the age of seven years; this may therefore be a key age to begin to investigate the important role humor has to play.As highlighted by Martin (2007), many previously available approaches to measuring humor focused only on the assumption that humor leads to beneficial outcomes. In terms of the ability to measure both positive and negative uses of humor, Martin et al. (2003) developed the humor styles questionnaire for adults (HSQ) proposing four distinguishable, but overlapping, humor styles. The first style of humor, affiliative, was categorised as having the ability to amuse others, tell jokes or say funny things, an example item being, "I don't have to work very hard at making other people laugh -I seem to be a naturally humorous person". Secondly, aggressive humor has been described as using humor without consideration of the impact on others, including the use of sarcasm or teasing -"When telling jokes or saying funny things, I am usually not very concerned about how other people are taking it". Self-enhancing humor was described as a style used by individuals who are able to maintain a humorous outlook on life, particularly when faced with difficult situations. An example item from the humor styles questionnaire is, "It is in my experience that thinking about some amusing aspect of the situation is often a very effective way of coping with problems". Lastly, self-defeating humor involves an individual's attempts at making others laugh at their own expensive, often by putting themselves down, for example demonstrated by the item, "I wil...

Longitudinal associations between younger children's humour styles and psychosocial adjustment

“…In support of James and Fox (2016b), cross‐sectional results at Time 1 and Time 2 were consistent with those found previously. When examining these findings, however, it should still be acknowledged that for some of the subscales, reliability was found to be lower than desired.…”

“…Based on previous findings, however , it was predicted that the adaptive humour styles would be associated with better adjustment over time whilst the maladaptive humour styles would be associated with poorer adjustment. In line with adult research, James and Fox (2016b) found that boys reported a greater use of the maladaptive humour styles. Thus, gender differences were also examined.…”

“…The HSQ‐Y (James & Fox, 2016b) is a 24‐item self‐report measure of the four humour styles suitable for children aged 8–11 years (Flesch reading ease score of the adapted HSQ‐Y = 84.9, US grade level = 3.6, UK year 4, age 8–9 years). An example item from the self‐enhancing subscale is ‘If I am feeling worried, it helps to think of something funny’ and from the affiliative subscale ‘I find it easy to make people laugh’.…”

“…Following the successful development of the humour styles questionnaire for younger children (HSQ‐Y) suitable for those aged 8–11 years, associations with adjustment were also identified in this age group (James & Fox, 2016b). Notably, the adaptive humour styles were found to be positively associated with self‐worth, social competence, and peer acceptance, and negatively associated with loneliness.…”

Konteksty szkolno-wychowawcze w badaniach nad agresją werbalną i agresywnymi formami humoru

“…Humor agresywny był u nich związany z niższym natężeniem lęku i wyższym poczuciem kompetencji społecznych, u dziewczynek zaś wiązał się z niskim poczuciem własnej wartości i depresyjnością. Trzy lata później ukazał się kwestionariusz HSQ-Y (James, Fox, 2016), stanowiący rzetelną i trafną metodę badania stylów humoru u dzieci między 8. a 11. rokiem życia. W tej grupie wiekowej chłopcy odznaczali się istotnie wyższym niż u dziewczynek natężeniem użycia nieadaptacyjnych stylów poczucia humoru.…”