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Humor Styles, Bullying Victimization and Psychological School Adjustment: Mediation, Moderation and Person-Oriented Analyses

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  • Christoph Burger

    (Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
    Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
    Division of Psychological Methodology, Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences, Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Straße 30, A-3500 Krems, Austria)

Abstract

Humor can be both adaptive and maladaptive and plays a role in bullying victimization and school adjustment. It was hypothesized that humor styles decrease or increase victimization, which in turn affects school adjustment. Furthermore, humor might moderate effects of victimization on school adjustment. Moreover, a person-oriented approach could improve our understanding of group differences in these variables. An online questionnaire retrospectively surveyed emerging adults ( N = 172; 77.2% female; mean age: 22.7 years) with respect to humor style use, bullying victimization and school adjustment. Mediation and moderation analyses were computed, and two sets of person-oriented analyses compared victims, bully-victims and noninvolved students on humor styles and school adjustment, and three latent humor-related groups (overall-high, adaptive-high and adaptive-low) on victimization and school adjustment. Victimization fully mediated the positive effect of affiliative humor and partially mediated the negative effect of self-defeating humor on school adjustment. The negative effect of victimization on school adjustment was magnified by self-defeating humor and attenuated by aggressive humor. Bully-victims used both aggressive and self-defeating humor more frequently, and victims used aggressive and affiliative humor less frequently. Furthermore, both victims and bully-victims showed lower school adjustment. Finally, the adaptive-high humor group showed lower victimization and higher school adjustment. Implications for school interventions are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Burger, 2022. "Humor Styles, Bullying Victimization and Psychological School Adjustment: Mediation, Moderation and Person-Oriented Analyses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-24, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11415-:d:911915
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christoph Burger & Lea Bachmann, 2021. "Perpetration and Victimization in Offline and Cyber Contexts: A Variable- and Person-Oriented Examination of Associations and Differences Regarding Domain-Specific Self-Esteem and School Adjustment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-21, October.
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