Leiden University Student Repository

Alavidze, Sofiia (2023)

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Potential Stress-buffering Effect of Humor as Means of Coping with Negative Life Events in Older Adults

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

Humor is a pleasant and universal yet still not fully understood human experience. A growing body of literature proposes potential anxiety alleviating effects of humor but thus far has been inconclusive and methodologically lacking. With the world’s population getting older and a concerning number of older adults having anxiety-related complaints, we set out to rigorously test this hypothesis using a prospective longitudinal design. We investigated whether humor influences anxiety following adverse life events in older adults. We analyzed data of 1589 participants collected over three measurement points three years apart using a Multilevel Linear Mixed model. Scores on anxiety, humor and negative life events questionnaires were compared. Contrary to the proposed hypothesis, we did not demonstrate humor affect anxiety following adverse life events. Stress-buffering effect of humor is hence yet to be conclusively proven. Study limitations and future directions were discussed.

humor

anxiety

stress

coping

older adults

negative life events

Author

Alavidze, Sofiia

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Clinical Psychology

Supervisors

Witlox M.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en