Adding amusement to anxiety: uses of humor in informal caregiver support groups

ABSTRACT

This study assessed how informal caregivers for people with dementia humorously communicate about their caregiving tasks and experiences. Support groups for informal caregivers for people with dementia were observed, and instances of humor were thematically analyzed. Informal caregivers used humor at specific moments, including when sharing struggles and exchanging advice, and they used various types of humor, including affiliative, self-defeating, aggressive, supportive, and contestive humor. Informal caregivers’ humor use may operate as an effective coping technique and supportive strategy of reinforcement and encouragement, but humor may also be harmful or detrimental to supportive interactions. These findings offer helpful insights into informal caregivers’ communication patterns and reveal humor’s potential to bring individuals relationally closer together, even over difficult topics such as dementia.

KEYWORDS:

• Humor
• social support
• informal caregivers
• dementia
• interpersonal communication

Acknowledgments

My deepest gratitude goes to Dementia Together and Cyndy Luzinski for their endless support and collaboration throughout the research process. My heartfelt appreciation goes to Dr. Meara Faw for her help with this project and to Dr. Ziyu Long for her feedback on early drafts of this manuscript. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research project received no external funding.

Notes on contributors

Michelle M. Matter

Michelle M. Matter (MA, Colorado State University) is a doctoral student in the Communication Studies Department at Colorado State University. Her research interests include interpersonal relationships, humor, and supportive communication.