The effect of humor style on premenstrual syndrome

This is a descriptive study and was conducted to determine the effect of humor style on premenstrual syndrome in university students. The data of the research were collected between 01.11.2020 and 30.05.2021. Population of the study consisted of female students (N=7573) who were studying at the faculties and colleges located in the Erdoğan Akdağ and Bilal Şahin campuses of Yozgat Bozok University. Before starting the study, power analysis was performed, and the sample size was determined as at least 132 people. In order to ensure reliability of the study, it was completed with 327 female students. Personal Information Form, Premenstrual Syndrome Scale (PMSS) and Humor Styles Scale (HSS) were used to collect data. It was determined that 76.5% of the students were between the ages of 18-20, 62.7% had a medium income and 71.6% were living in dormitories or hostels. It was determined that the mean total score of PMSS was 124.52±32.52 and 67.6% of the students had premenstrual syndrome. Mean score students received from participatory humor sub-dimension was 38.64±8.49 while it was 35.2±7.7 from self-enhancing humor sub-dimension, 23.2±8.0 from offensive humor sub-dimension, and 28.1±8.1 from self-destructive humor sub-dimension, It was determined that the participatory social humor and self-enhancing humor scores of those with PMS were lower than the scores of those without PMS, while the scores of offensive humor and self-destructive humor were higher (p<0.001). It was determined that the probability of having PMS decreased by 5.2% (1-0.948) as the self-enhancing humor score increased, and the risk of PMS increased 1.059 times as the self-destructive humor score increased. In conclusion, humor styles of students are effective on PMS. Thus, it is recommended to increase social and scientific activities within the scope of universities that will positively improve humor style and to conduct increased number of studies on the relationship between humor style and PMS with larger samples.