The Moderating Role of University Students’ Humor Styles on the Association between General Mental Health and Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

This study investigated the associations among humor styles, general mental health (GMH), and subjective well-being (SWB) in a non-clinical sample of 662 university students (M_age = 21.35, SD = 4.14; 66.3% females) attending Greek public universities, via an online survey. In addition, it investigated possible moderating effects of humor styles in the association between GMH and SWB as well as gender differences. Positive correlations emerged between GMH and SWB, as well as among GMH, SWB, and benign humor styles. Malignant humor styles had a negative correlation with both GMH and SWB. The use of aggressive and self-defeating humor moderated the association between GMH and SWB in that at low levels of these humor styles the link between GMH and SWB was stronger. Finally, males scored higher on self-enhancing and aggressive humor than females. The findings expand previous research and are discussed in terms of their implications.

Keywords:

• Quality of life
• stress and coping
• interpersonal relations
• psychopathology
• counseling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Constantinos M. Kokkinos

Constantinos M. Kokkinos, Ph.D., is a Professor in Educational Psychology at the Department of Primary Education, Democritus University of Thrace in Greece. He studies the role of individual differences and contextual correlates of children’s, adolescents’, and emerging adults’ aggressive behavior. His current research focuses on the role of personality on university students’ adaptive and maladaptive behaviors.

Athanasios Koutsospyros

Athanasios Koytsospyros, BSc, is a psychology graduate studying for an MSc in Sleep Medicine at the Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. His research interests include primary school teachers’ metacognitive awareness in teaching reading comprehension, as well as humor and emerging adults’ mental health and well-being.