The relationship between humor styles and perceived stress, anxiety and depression of college students

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the styles of humor and perceived stress, anxiety and depression among college students. Humor Styles Questionnaire, Coping Humor Scale, Life Events Scale, Daily Hassles Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory were administered to 409 (199 females, 210 male) college students. Results indicated that the Affiliative Humor, Self-Enhancing Humor (subscales of HSQ which assesses the healthy styles of humor) and Coping Humor were negatively correlated with perceived stress, anxiety and depression. No significant relationship was found between Aggressive humor and negative affect however Self-Defeating humor was weakly but positively correlated with negative affect. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that humor styles were not moderating the effects of major life events but only aggressive humor style was moderating the effects of daily hassles on negative affect. Results failed to support the hypothesis that humor moderates the negative effects of stressful life events on mood.