Coping with caregiving: Humor styles and health outcomes among parents of children with disabilities

Abstract

Background: Parents of children with developmental disabilities experience greater stress and worse mental and physical health outcomes than parents of typically developing children. The use of various humor styles to cope with stressors has been associated with mental and, to a lesser extent, physical health outcomes in other populations, but has not been previously examined among parents of children with disabilities.

Aims: To examine relations of adaptive vs. maladaptive humor styles with depression, daily affect, mental and physical functioning, somatic symptoms, and health behaviors, and to examine whether social support or positive reappraisal mediate relations of humor with health outcomes.

Method: 80 parents of children with disabilities completed online surveys at T1. 40 parents completed T2 surveys 4 months later.

Results: As predicted, the adaptive humor styles - self-enhancing and affiliative - were associated with enhanced mental health outcomes, and these relations were mediated by social support and, to a lesser extent, positive reappraisal. Self-defeating humor was associated with worse mental health, greater symptoms, and worse health behavior; these relations were mediated by social support.

Conclusion: Adaptive humor use may facilitate caregivers' ability to garner support from others and reframe stressors, which ultimately may contribute to mental and physical resilience to stress.

Keywords: Caregivers; Children with disabilities; Humor styles; Positive reappraisal; Social support.