Humour Styles and Bullying in Schools
Lead Research Organisation:
Keele University
Department Name: Research Institute for Social Sciences
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Claire Fox (Principal Investigator) | |
| Simon Hunter (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Fox C
(2016)
Children's humor types and psychosocial adjustment
in Personality and Individual Differences
Fox C
(2014)
The Relationship Between Peer Victimization and Children's Humor Styles: It's No Laughing Matter!
in Social Development
Fox CL
(2016)
Longitudinal Associations Between Humor Styles and Psychosocial Adjustment in Adolescence.
in Europe's journal of psychology
Fox, C. L.
(2014)
The relationship between peer victimisation and children's humour styles: It's no laughing matter!
in Developmental Psychology Conference, Amsterdam, 3rd to 5th September 2014
Fox, C. L.
(2012)
Humour styles and bullying in schools
in International Society for Humor Studies Conference 2012
Fox, C. L.
(2013)
Reciprocity between Humor and Peer Victimization
in European Developmental Psychology Conference 2013
Hunter SC
(2016)
Humor style similarity and difference in friendship dyads.
in Journal of adolescence
Jones S
(2013)
'I'm being called names and I'm being hit'. Challenges of longitudinal research on bullying amongst 11-13-year-olds
in Pastoral Care in Education
Jones, S. E.
(2013)
I'm Being Called Names and I'm Being Hit: Challenges of Longitudinal Research on Bullying Among 11-13 Year-Olds
in Division of Educational and Child Psychology (BPS) Conference 2013
| Description | Humour can strengthen and develop relationships, but is likely to require a supportive interpersonal and social context for positive forms to develop. Among adolescents (Fox et al., in press) there are four main humour styles, two of which are adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating). Peer victimisation may endanger the development of positive styles, while promoting reliance on self-defeating humour (Klein & Kuiper, 2006). Furthermore, self-defeating humour is considered to reflect a neediness and low self-esteem and so a vicious circle between self-defeating humour and peer victimisation may develop. Overall, 1234 young people aged 11-13 years provided peer nominations and self-reports assessing bullying and peer victimisation, humour styles, internalising problems (symptoms of depression and loneliness), and self-esteem. Measures were completed at the beginning and end of the school year. Peer victimisation led to an increase in self-defeating humour and a decrease in affiliative humour over time (and vice-versa). This suggests that victimisation can affect a child's use of humour and humour can put children at risk of being bullied and protect them from the experience. Similarly, bi-directional relationships between peer victimisation and internalising problems were also identified. Thus, depressive symptoms and loneliness can both result from and put children at risk of peer victimisation. Furthermore, children reporting higher levels of internalising problems subsequently reported greater self-defeating humour, which in turn led to more victimisation. Self-reports of bullying behaviour led to an increase in the use of both maladaptive humour styles over time (and vice-versa). |
| Exploitation Route | Our results potentially have implications for interventions. For many years, young people have been encouraged to use humour as a way of dealing with children who use bullying behaviours, most notably by 'fogging' which involves agreeing with the comments of the perpetrator. However, our evidence suggests this could lead to negative outcomes, whereas taking an approach based on affiliative humour may lead to positive outcomes. Interventions already exist for children who are victimized by their peers, in the form of Social Skills Training (SST) programmes (e.g. Fox & Boulton, 2003ab). The findings from evaluations of these interventions indicate some beneficial effects, for example, in leading to an increase in children's self-esteem (Fox & Boulton, 2003a). Our findings suggest that a focus on how children use humour would be a welcome addition to such programmes. |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | https://esrcbullyingandhumourproject.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Final Dissemination Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Final project event to disseminate the research findings - at Keele University - 30th April 2013 Increased interest in project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Final Project Leaflet |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Leaflet to disseminate the findings to the school teachers, children involved and their parents. Leaflet produced to coincide with final dissemination event Increased interest in the project from teachers and parents. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Friends like these: Group Processes and Children's Response to Bullying |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Invited Talk by Dr Sian Jones at the University of Padova, Italy, in April 2013 Increase in project and hits on website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Friends like these: Peer Relationships in Childhood and Adolescence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | BPS Psychologist in the Pub Public Lecture by Dr Sian Jones Increased interest in project and hits to website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | LMAO? Longitudinal relationships between humour and involvement in bullying. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk in the Dept of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, April 2013 Increase in hits to website and interest in project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Press Release |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Media attention including a piece on the BBC website, with 400+ comments in just one day. Increased interest in project and hits to website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22354326 |
| Description | The Humour and bullying project: Modelling cross-lagged and dyadic data |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Talk as part of an ESRC-funded AQMeN seminar, Nov 2012 Increased interest in project as noted in increased hits on website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |