Adolescent Humour and Its Relationship with Psychological Adjustment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51333/njpsw.2020.v21.i1.246Keywords:
Humour, depression, anxiety, emotional and behavioural problems, self-esteem, adolescentAbstract
Background: Adolescence is a transition phase towards adulthood. There is a correlation between humour and psychosocial adjustment. Aim: To assess the level of humour among adolescents and to see its relationships with their general psychological adjustment. Methods and Materials: The present study is a cross-sectional study. Convenience sampling was used to select the school and total enumeration method was used for the selection of the respondents (school-going adolescent). School going adolescents between the ages of 13-17 years were included. They were assessed with their consent using a Socio-demographic Datasheet, Richmond Humour Assessment Instrument, Beck Depression Inventory, Interaction Anxiousness Scale, Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire, Academic Expectation Stress Inventory and Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Results: Humour has a significant negative correlation with the emotional problems and significant positive correlation with pro-social behaviour and total difficulty score. Moreover, it was found that humour has a significant positive correlation with self-efficacy. In regression analysis, it was found that conduct problems and pro-social behaviour contribute significantly to the prediction of humour among adolescents; though, accounting only for 1.08% variance. Remaining 98.9% was attributed to a variable not included in the study. Conclusion: Humour can lead to an improvement in psychological adjustment among adolescent.
Keywords: Humour, depression, anxiety, emotional and behavioural problems, self-esteem, adolescent
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