Perceived stress and burnout in research assistants: The role of humor

Stress and burnout of research assistants at universities are significant concerns, as their performance and well-being can be affected. While previous research has explored stress and burnout in various professions, this study specifically focuses on research assistants, a group that has received limited attention in the literature. The present thesis aimed to investigate the stress and burnout experienced by research assistants and explore the role of coping humor and humor styles. Research assistants (N=406) responded to the Perceived Stress Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Coping Humor Scale, and the Humor Styles Questionnaire via an online survey platform. As a result, a positive correlation between the perceived stress and burnout of the research assistants was confirmed. Furthermore, a negative relationship was observed between research assistants' sense of humor and burnout. However, coping humor was not a significant moderator in the relationship between perceived stress and burnout. Rather, perceived stress partially mediated the negative relationship between coping humor and burnout. The path analysis of Structural Equation Modeling revealed that burnout could be predicted by their sense of humor but not directly. The effect of coping humor on burnout was mediated by two adaptive humor styles and perceived stress. Affiliative humor directly impacted burnout in a negative way while self-enhancing humor negatively affects burnout levels via perceived stress. The finding suggests that research assistants who tend to use positive humor in coping with difficulties would perceive less stress and consequently less burnout. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.