A comparison of humor styles, coping humor, and mental health between Chinese and Canadian university students

Transcription

1 A comparison of humor styles, coping humor, and mental health between Chinese and Canadian university students GUO-HAI CHEN and ROD A. MARTIN Abstract This research compares the structure and correlates of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and Coping Humor Scale (CHS) in the Chinese context with those of Canadian samples. Chinese translations of the HSQ, CHS, and Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) were administered to 354 Chinese university students (M ¼ 23.4 years of age, SD ¼ 3.6). As in the original Canadian samples, four humor factors were found in the HSQ: A liative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive, and Self-defeating humor, and one factor was found in the CHS. The HSQ and CHS scale reliabilities in the Chinese sample were generally acceptable. Chinese participants, as compared to Canadian norms, reported significantly lower scores on the HSQ subscales and CHS, particularly on Aggressive humor. No significant gender di erences were found on the four HSQ subscales in the Chinese sample, whereas Canadian males reported more use of Aggressive and Self-defeating humor than did females. Although no gender di erence was found on Coping humor in the Canadian samples, Chinese males had significantly higher scores on this scale than did females. In both the Chinese and Canadian samples, younger participants reported more use of A liative and Aggressive humor than did older ones. A liative, Self-enhancing, and Coping humor were negatively correlated, while Aggressive and Selfdefeating humor were positively correlated with the subscales and General Symptomatic Index of the SCL-90. Regression results indicated that mental health is more strongly related to Self-enhancing, Self-defeating, and Coping humor than A liative and Aggressive humor. Overall, the findings support the theoretical structure and usefulness of the HSQ and CHS in the Chinese context. Humor 20 3 (2007), /07/ DOI /HUMOR Walter de Gruyter

2 216 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin Keywords: Canadian; Chinese; Comparison; Coping Humor; Humor Styles; Mental Health. 1. Introduction 1.1. The Humor Styles Questionnaire Martin et al. (2003) have recently proposed a model of humor styles comprising four distinct dimensions, two of which are thought to be potentially beneficial to psychological well-being, while two are potentially detrimental. The two positive styles are: A liative humor (tendency to say funny things, to tell jokes, and to engage in spontaneous witty banter, in order to amuse others, to facilitate relationships, and to reduce interpersonal tensions), and Self-enhancing humor (tendency to be frequently amused by the incongruities of life, to maintain a humorous perspective even in the face of stress or adversity, and to use humor as an emotionregulation mechanism). The two negative styles are Aggressive humor (tendency to use humor for the purpose of criticizing or manipulating others, as in sarcasm, teasing, ridicule, derision, or disparagement humor), and Self-defeating humor (use of humor to ingratiate oneself with others, attempts to amuse others by doing or saying funny things at one s own expense, excessively self-disparaging humor, and laughing along with others when being ridiculed or disparaged). These authors developed the 32-item Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) to measure these four humor dimensions. The HSQ was developed and validated with several large Canadian samples of participants ranging in age from 14 to 87 years (Martin et al. 2003). The scales have shown acceptable levels of reliability and a clear factor structure corresponding to the hypothesized dimensions. Martin et al. (2003) reported Cronbach alphas of the four subscales ranging from.77 to.81. Validational support for the measure includes di erential and theoreticallyrelevant patterns of correlations between the four scales and other selfreported measures of humor, peer ratings of humor styles, and measures of moods, well-being, self-esteem, optimism, hostility, intimacy, agency and communion, and personality traits from the Five Factor Model of personality. Examination of gender di erences has shown higher scores for males than females on both Aggressive and Self-defeating humor, but negligible di erences on the two more beneficial styles of humor.

3 Humor styles and coping humor in China 217 Self-defeating humor was found to have a significantly positive correlation with the General Symptomatic Index (GSI) of the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R). Using a French translation, Saroglou and Scariot (2002) demonstrated good psychometric properties and an appropriate factor structure of the HSQ with a sample of Belgian participants, as well as di erential correlations with measures of personality and academic motivation. Kazarian and Martin (2004) also examined the structure and correlates of the HSQ with a sample of Lebanese university students. The data revealed four humor factors, as in the original Canadian samples. Scale reliabilities were generally acceptable. Lebanese participants, as compared to Canadian norms, obtained significantly lower scores on three of the four humor scales. Males reported significantly more use of Aggressive and Selfdefeating humor than did females. Humor styles correlated di erentially, and generally as predicted, with horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism, attachment styles, perceived health, and psychological wellbeing The Coping Humor Scale The Coping Humor Scale (CHS) is a seven-item scale which assesses the degree to which participants use humor to cope with stress (Martin and Lefcourt 1983). Martin (1996) reviewed research using this measure, and reported adequate Cronbach alphas in the.60 to.70 range in various samples. Ho and Lin (2000) reported a Cronbach alpha of.75 with one item omitted. Nevo et al. (2001) reported a Cronbach alpha of.60 when the CHS was administered to 119 undergraduate students of Chinese origin in Singapore. In addition, Overholser (1992) reported a test-retest reliability of.80 over a 12 week period. In their sample of Singaporean students of Chinese origin, Nevo et al. (2001) found a similar mean score on the CHS as compared to those found previously in Israel and the United States. However, Singaporean participants reported significantly less use of Coping humor as compared to participants from other countries. The findings obtained from the Taiwanese and Singaporean samples may not hold true for Mainland Chinese due to socio-economic and cultural di erences among Taiwan, Singapore, and Mainland China. For example, Singaporeans may be more aggressive than Mainland Chinese (Wu 1975).

4 218 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin Some studies have reported a significant stress-moderating e ect of Coping humor. In particular, participants with high scores on the CHS showed a weaker correlation between stressful life events and negative moods as compared to those with low CHS scores (Ho and Lin 2000; Martin and Lefcourt 1983; Nezu et al. 1988; Overholser 1992). However, these findings were not replicated in some other studies (e.g., Porterfield 1987). The CHS has also been found to be positively related to selfesteem, stability of self-concept, realistic cognitive appraisals, optimism, sense of coherence, and extraversion, and negatively related to dysfunctional attitudes and neuroticism (e.g., Kuiper et al. 1993; Kuiper et al. 2004; Overholser 1992; Porterfield 1987). The CHS is conceptually very similar to the Self-enhancing humor scale in the HSQ and, indeed, Martin et al. (2003) and Kuiper et al. (2004) reported a high correlation between these two measures (r ¼ :55 and r ¼ :60 respectively, both p <:01). Additionally, Coping humor was moderately related to A liative humor (r ¼ :33 and r ¼ :49 respectively, both p <:01) and Aggressive humor (r ¼ :21 and r ¼ :26 respectively, both p <:01), but unrelated to Self-defeating humor Research questions We were unable to find any previous psychological studies of humor in Mainland China using empirical psychometric methods. Accordingly, as an initial step in the investigation of psychological aspects of humor in Mainland China, we compared the structure and psychometric properties of a Chinese translation of the Humor Styles Questionnaire and Coping Humor Scale in a Chinese sample of university students with reported Canadian norms. Validation of the factor structure of these scales in Chinese would help establish cross-cultural equivalence and would provide support for the universality of the constructs underlying these scales. In addition, we were interested in exploring demographic variables (gender and age) in relation to the HSQ and CHS in the Chinese sample, as compared with the Canadian samples. Finally, the present study examined the four humor styles and the CHS in relation to mental health as measured with the scales of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), which has been widely used in Mainland China to assess people s mental health. Martin et al. (2003) found positive correlations between the adaptive humor styles (A liative and Self-enhancing)

5 Humor styles and coping humor in China 219 and several measures of well-being (including the SCL-90), and negative correlations between the detrimental humor styles (Self-defeating and Aggressive) and well-being. The total score of the SCL-90 was reported to be positively correlated with Self-defeating humor. However, the relationship of the HSQ and CHS to the individual subscales of the SCL-90 has not been reported in detail in the literature. Therefore, an aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of the presumed beneficial and detrimental humor styles and Coping humor to the subscales and total score of the SCL-90. Di erential correlations between the four humor styles and the SCL-90 scales would provide further evidence for the distinction between beneficial and detrimental uses of humor within both the Chinese and Canadian context. 2. Method 2.1. Participants and procedure A total of 354 students (65% female, 35% male) participated in this study. Of these, 240 were sophomore undergraduate students of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, who enrolled in an Organizational Behavior course taught by the first author, whereas 114 were adult part-time students of Southern China Polytechnic University, pursuing their bachelor s degree and enrolling in another class of the same course taught by the first author. This course touched on several humor-related topics, including the role of humor in leadership, communication, and stress relief, although this topic was not the main focus of the course. All participants were invited to participate by filling out the questionnaires on a voluntary basis immediately after a class lecture. A sub-sample of 74 of these participants (with similar mean age and gender ratio as the total sample) completed the HSQ and CHS a second time approximately one month later. Those who did not take the re-test completed all the measures anonymously, whereas those who were to be re-tested provided their names so that individuals responses on the two administrations could be matched. The only benefit for participation was that they received their own test scores and general interpretations from the first author. The mean age of participants was 23.4 years (SD ¼ 3:6).

6 220 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin 2.2. Measures Chinese Translation of Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al. 2003). The HSQ contains 8 items for each of the four humor styles. Sample items include: I laugh and joke a lot with my friends (A liative); My humorous outlook on life keeps me from getting overly upset or depressed about things (Self-enhancing); If someone makes a mistake, I will often tease them about it (Aggressive); and I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should (Self-defeating). The English version of the HSQ was translated into Chinese by a professor in English literature. This Chinese translation was then backtranslated into English by another professor in English literature. The second author of the present article (also one of the authors of the HSQ) read the back-translated English version to verify the accuracy of the translation. The Chinese translation of the HSQ was finalized after translators discussions and revisions according to the suggestions of the original author. Chinese Translation of Coping Humor Scale (CHS; Martin and Lefcourt 1983). The development of the Chinese translation of the 7-item CHS also followed the same translation and back-translation procedures that were used in the development of the Chinese version of the HSQ. Chinese Translation of Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90; Derogatis et al. 1974; Derogatis 1994; Wang 1984). The SCL-90 is a self-reported 90-item measure to assess mental health status. There are 9 primary symptom dimensions: Somatization, Obsessive-Compulsive, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism. Seven additional items are not included in any of the primary symptom dimensions. There is also a global index of distress, the General Symptomatic Index (GSI). Derogatis et al. (1974) reported the Cronbach alphas of the 9 subscales ranging from.77 to.99. The Chinese translation by Wang (1984) was used in the present study. 3. Results 3.1. Exploratory factor analysis of the HSQ A principal component factor analysis using Varimax rotation was computed on the 32 items of the HSQ. Examination of the scree plot

7 Humor styles and coping humor in China 221 indicated that a four factor solution was clearly optimal. The first four factors had eigenvalues of 4.90, 3.56, 2.48, and 1.81, respectively, accounting for 39.9% of the total variance (the next three eigenvalues were 1.37, 1.13, and 1.08). These are very similar to those reported by Martin et al. (2003). An examination of the item loadings on each of the four rotated factors revealed that these factors corresponded very closely with the original four scales of the HSQ. The item loadings on A liative and Selfenhancing humor ranged from.41 to.76, and.42 to.77 respectively. The item loadings on Self-defeating humor ranged from.40 to.71 with one exception: item 28 ( If I am having problems or feeling unhappy, I often cover it up by joking around, so that even my closest friends don t know how I really feel ) loaded more highly on the Self-enhancing humor (.38) than on the Self-defeating humor (.13) factor. The item loadings on the Aggressive humor factor ranged from.37 to.57 with three exceptions (Items 11, 19 and 27). The loading of Item 11 ( When telling jokes or saying funny things, I am usually not very concerned about how other people are taking it. ) was somewhat low (.22). Item 19 ( Sometimes I think of something that is so funny that I can t stop myself from saying it, even if it is not appropriate for the situation. ) and Item 27 ( If I don t like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down. ) loaded most highly (.42 and.30, respectively) on the Self-defeating humor factor. Overall, almost all of the items loaded most highly on their designated scale and the loading weights of items ranged from.37 to.77, suggesting that the theoretical structure of the HSQ that exists in Canada also exists in China. However, there might be some cultural di erences between Canadians and Chinese in their understanding of Self-defeating and Aggressive humor Confirmatory factor analysis of the HSQ A confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation was conducted on the data from all participants (N ¼ 354). A four-factor model was tested, with the four scales as latent variables and eight items as indicators for each latent variable. The four latent variables were allowed to covary. The results indicated a moderately good fit to the data (GFI ¼.86, AGFI ¼.83, RMSEA ¼.06). An acceptable fit would require GFI >:90, AGFI >:80, RMSEA <:08 (Anderson et al. 2001).

8 222 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin These results were lower than those reported by Martin et al. (2003) (GFI ¼.91, AGFI ¼.90, RMSEA ¼.05), but still somewhat acceptable, indicating the data from the Canadian sample have a better fit with the proposed model than those from the Chinese sample. This finding may also suggest that some items of the HSQ should be modified in the Chinese context in order to achieve a better fit Factor analysis of the CHS A principal components analysis using Varimax rotation was computed on the 7 items of the CHS. There were two eigenvalues of 2.42 and 1.26 which were greater than one (the next two were.85 and.75). However, examination of the scree plot indicated that a one-factor solution was clearly optimal, accounting for 34.62% of the total variance. An examination of the factor matrix showed that the item loadings on the single unrotated factor ranged from.21 to.68, suggesting that the factor corresponded very closely with the original scale of the CHS Internal consistencies and inter-correlations for the HSQ and CHS The internal consistencies (Cronbach alphas) of the four HSQ scales and CHS, as well as their inter-correlations are presented in Table 1. The Cronbach alphas ranged from.61 to.81 for the four HSQ subscales, which are slightly lower than those reported by Martin et al. (2003), but Table Internal Consistencies (Cronbach Alphas) for the Total Sample (N ¼ 354) and Inter-Correlations of the Four HSQ Scales and CHS for Males (n ¼ 124) and Females (n ¼ 230) A S-E Agg S-D CHS A liative Humor (A ).81.35** ** Self-enhancing Humor (S-E).37** **.70** Aggressive Humor (Agg).19** **.04 Self-defeating Humor (S-D).11.39**.38** Coping Humor (CHS).64**.66**.09.28**.65 Note: Cronbach alphas are on the diagonal. Correlations for males are above the diagonal, for females below the diagonal. * means p <:05, ** p <:01.

9 Humor styles and coping humor in China 223 still acceptable. It should be noted that the reliability of the Aggressive humor scale is somewhat low compared to that reported by Martin et al. (2003), giving further evidence that the Chinese version of this scale might benefit from further development. The Cronbach alpha for the CHS was.65, which was not very high, but still acceptable, and slightly higher than the value of.61 found in Canada (Martin and Lefcourt 1983). The corrected item-total correlations for the 7 items on the CHS ranged from.27 to.56, with one exception (Item 4: I must admit my life would probably be easier if I had more of a sense of humor ), which had a very low corrected item-total correlation of.07, suggesting that Item 4 is not consistent with the other items. The Cronbach alpha was increased from.65 to.70 by leaving out Item 4, consistent with Martin s (1996) recommendation to omit this item. The pattern and magnitude of correlations among the four HSQ subscales is somewhat similar to that reported in Canadian samples by Martin et al. (2003), with the strongest correlations occurring between the two presumably beneficial humor scales (A liative and Self-enhancing humor; r ¼ :35 for males and.37 for females, p <:01) and between the two presumably detrimental humor scales (Aggressive and Self-defeating humor; r ¼ :35 for males and.38 for females, p <:01). In addition, a moderate correlation (r ¼ :19, p <:01) was found between A liative and Aggressive humor among Chinese females (as was found for both males and females in the Canadian samples). The correlation between Self-defeating and Self-enhancing humor (r ¼ :20, p <:01) was also significant in the Chinese male sample. However, there were some di erences between this Chinese sample and Canadian samples. First, a significant correlation was not found between Aggressive and A liative humor or between Aggressive and Self-enhancing humor among Chinese males. Second, the correlation between Self-defeating and Self-enhancing humor (r ¼ :39, p <:01) was significant in the Chinese female sample while this was not found in the Canadian female sample. Both A liative and Self-enhancing humor were highly correlated with Coping humor in this sample (r ¼ :64 and.66 respectively for females, and r ¼ :49 and.70 respectively for males, all p <:001), similar to the Canadian samples (Martin et al. 2003; Kuiper et al. 2004). No significant correlation was found between Coping humor and Aggressive humor in this Chinese sample, which was di erent from positive and significant correlations found in Canadian samples, possibly indicating that Chinese

10 224 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin use less Aggressive humor to deal with life stress than their Canadian counterparts. Coping humor was positively and significantly correlated with Self-defeating humor among females (r ¼ :28, p <:01), which was also di erent from the finding of no significant correlation between these variables in Canadian samples. This might imply that when coping with stress, Chinese females use more Self-defeating humor than their Canadian counterparts Test-retest reliabilities for the HSQ and CHS To test the stability of scores across a four week interval, test-retest coefficients were calculated on a subsample of 74 participants (28 males, 46 females). The test-retest reliability coe cients were.67,.64,.57, and.65 (all p <:01) for A liative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive, and Self-defeating humor, respectively, which were lower than those reported by Martin et al. (2003) in a Canadian sample of 179 participants, but still fairly acceptable. One of the possible reasons for this result is that the time interval between the test and retest for the Canadian sample was one week, shorter than the four-weeks in this sample. The test-retest coe cient for the CHS was.79 (p <:01), which was virtually the same as that (namely.80) reported by Overholser (1992) Scale norms and gender di erences for the HSQ and CHS For the Canadian CHS norms, unpublished data were provided by the second author from 388 Canadian university students (175 males and 213 females). In comparison with the Canadian means reported by Martin et al. (2003), scores on the four HSQ scales and the CHS were significantly lower among Chinese participants. The overall mean score for A liative humor among Chinese participants (M ¼ 43:55, SD ¼ 7:79) was significantly lower than that of Canadian counterparts (M ¼ 46:4, SD ¼ 7:17; t ¼ 5:2, p <:01). The overall mean score of Self-enhancing humor for Chinese participants (M ¼ 35:18, SD ¼ 8:26) was significantly lower than that of Canadian counterparts (M ¼ 37:3, SD ¼ 8:33; t ¼ 3:5, p <:01). The overall mean score of Aggressive humor for Chinese participants (M ¼ 23:36, SD ¼ 6:45) was significantly lower than that of Canadian counterparts (M ¼ 28:5, SD ¼ 8:79; t ¼ 9:1,

11 Humor styles and coping humor in China 225 p <:01). The overall mean score of Self-defeating humor for Chinese participants (M ¼ 22:68, SD ¼ 7:59) was significantly lower than that of Canadian counterparts (M ¼ 25:9, SD ¼ 9:22; t ¼ 5:2, p <:01). The overall mean score of Coping humor for Chinese participants (M ¼ 19:2, SD ¼ 3:18) was significantly lower than that of Canadian counterparts (M ¼ 19:8, SD ¼ 3:29; t ¼ 2:5, p <:05). We relied on the recommendations of Cohen (1988) in interpreting the meaning of the observed e ect sizes (E.S.) e ect sizes (d) of less than.40 are described as small, those from.40 to.70 as moderate, and those above.70 as large. The e ect sizes of mean di erences were.38,.26,.66,.38, and.19 for A liative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive, Selfdefeating, and Coping humor, indicating that Aggressive humor had a medium e ect size, the other three humor styles and coping humor had small e ect sizes. The mean di erence in Aggressive humor may reflect di erences between the two cultures in the degree to which humor is used to express aggression and hostility. Although males have been found to have higher Aggressive and Selfdefeating humor scores compared to females in Canadian samples, no significant gender di erences in the four humor styles were found in this Chinese sample. However, a significant di erence in Coping humor between males and females was found in this sample. The overall mean score of the CHS for males (M ¼ 19:75, SD ¼ 3:23) was significantly higher than that of females (M ¼ 18:88, SD ¼ 3:16; t ¼ 2:42, p <:05), which is di erent from the Canadian samples, where no significant gender di erences have been found Age di erences for the HSQ and CHS To examine age di erences in the four HSQ scales and CHS, we formed two groups using the data of participants (n ¼ 119) younger than 22 years of age (M ¼ 20:78 years, SD ¼ 0:43), and participants (n ¼ 100) older than 23 years of age (M ¼ 27:98 years, SD ¼ 3:65). Similar to Canadian samples (Martin et al. 2003), on the A liative humor scale, younger participants (M ¼ 44:0, SD ¼ 8:13) had higher scores than did older participants (M ¼ 41:8, SD ¼ 8:17, p <:01). The data also showed consistency with Martin et al. s (2003) finding that, on the Aggressive humor scale, younger participants (M ¼ 25:42, SD ¼ 6:92) had higher scores than did older participants (M ¼ 23:07, SD ¼ 6:65, p <:05). No significant age

12 226 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin di erences were found on their scores of Self-enhancing, Self-defeating and Coping humor Humor styles, coping humor, and mental health The Cronbach alphas for the 9 primary subscales of the SCL-90 ranged from.69 to.87 in this sample, indicating that the SCL-90 was a reliable measure for use in China. Correlations between each of the four HSQ scales, the CHS, and the 9 primary subscales, Additional Items and General Symptomatic Index of SCL-90 are presented in Table 2. In order to compare these results with those found in Canadian samples, unpublished raw data were provided by the second author with the SCL-90 administered to 168 Canadian undergraduate students. A similar correlational pattern was found with these unpublished raw data. Self-enhancing and Coping humor were negatively related to nearly all the subscales and the General Symptomatic Index (GSI) of the SCL-90, whereas Self-defeating humor was positively correlated with most of these psychological symptoms. A liative and Aggressive humor were less consistently related to the SCL-90, although A liative humor showed weak negatively correlations and Aggressive humor revealed weak positive correlations with a few of the scales. Table 2. Correlations Between HSQ Subscales, CHS, SCL-90 Subscales and Its General Symptomatic Index for All Participants (N ¼ 354) A S-E Agg S-D CHS Somatization.11.12*.12*.18**.23** Obsessive-Compulsive.09.19**.14*.11*.28** Interpersonal Sensitivity.18**.26**.10.14*.36** Depression.12*.27**.06.15**.29** Anxiety.07.23**.11*.15**.29** Hostility *.15**.19** Phobic Anxiety.14**.15**.10.15**.27** Paranoid Ideation.03.11*.14*.14*.18** Psychoticism.12*.19**.09.18**.24** Additional Items.09.22** ** GSI.13*.24**.14*.18**.33** Note: * p <:05, ** p <:01. A ¼ A liative humor, S-E ¼ Self-enhancing humor, Agg ¼ Aggressive humor, S-D ¼ Self-defeating humor, CHS ¼ Coping humor, GSI ¼ General Symptomatic Index

13 Humor styles and coping humor in China Regression of humor styles and coping humor on the general symptomatic index of SCL-90 To determine the extent to which the four humor styles together contribute to the prediction of mental health, a multiple regression analysis was conducted with the General Symptomatic Index (GSI) of the SCL-90 as the dependent measure, entering the four humor styles as independent variables. We selected GSI as our dependent measure since this is a general index for all SCL-90 subscales, simplifying the regression analysis. The results revealed that the four humor styles together explained 16.1% of the total variance of GSI (F ð4; 270Þ ¼12:77, p <:001). Self-enhancing humor contributed significantly and negatively to the prediction of the GSI ( b ¼ :32, t ¼ 5:14, p <:001), while Self-defeating humor contributed significantly and positively ( b ¼ :29, t ¼ 4:68, p <:001). A liative and Aggressive humor had no significant contributions to the prediction of GSI. Since Coping humor was highly correlated with (and is conceptually very similar to) Self-enhancing humor, it was inappropriate to enter the CHS along with the HSQ scales in the preceding regression analysis. However, when a regression analysis was conducted with GSI as the dependent measure and CHS as independent variable, the results showed that coping humor could explain 10.9% of the total variance of GSI. 4. Discussion The findings from this study indicate some similarities and some di erences in humor styles and Coping humor between Chinese university students and their Canadian counterparts. The very similar factor structure of the 32 HSQ items and the 7 CHS items in the two cultures indicates that the four humor styles and Coping humor posited by Martin et al. (2003) and Martin and Lefcourt (1983) respectively exist also in China. The A liative and Self-enhancing humor subscales of the HSQ and the Coping Humor Scale show acceptable psychometric properties for use in China as well as in Canada. However, although the Aggressive and Selfdefeating humor constructs clearly emerged in the factor analysis of HSQ, the lower internal consistencies of these subscales (especially Aggressive humor) suggest that their items capture a more disparate and less unitary set of constructs in China than in Canada. It may be that aggressive

14 228 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin expressions of humor and the concepts of self-derogation take di erent forms in the two cultures, and a few items di erent from those in the original HSQ scale may need to be added to capture the constructs more reliably in China. Kazarian and Martin (2004) tested a Lebanese sample and found that Item 19 from the Aggressive humor scale ( Sometimes I think of something that is so funny that I can t stop myself from saying it, even if it is not appropriate for the situation. ) loaded most highly on the Selfdefeating humor scale. This was also found in the present sample. With regards to weaker items (Item 11, 27, and 28) besides Item 19 in the Chinese context, the loading of Item 11 from the Aggressive humor scale ( When telling jokes or saying funny things, I am usually not very concerned about how other people are taking it. ) was somewhat low. The concept of Chinese tolerance or politeness, including respecting people s face ( Liao 2003), may account for these di erences. Chinese, who show higher tolerance toward others, consider items 11 and 19 as having a weaker connotation of direct aggressiveness, as compared to their Canadian counterparts. Item 27 from the Aggressive humor scale ( If I don t like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down. ) loaded most highly on the Self-defeating humor scale. This may be caused by the significant intercorrelation between Aggressive and Self-defeating humor. There is an old Chinese saying that a good person ( junzi ) will not fight with a villain ( xiaoren ). Otherwise people will view a person with bad or aggressive behaviors the same as a villain, indicating that he is defeating himself. Item 28 from the Self-defeating humor ( If I am having problems or feeling unhappy, I often cover it up by joking around, so that even my closest friends don t know how I really feel. ) loaded most highly on the Self-enhancing humor scale. This result was quite similar to the finding reported by Kazarian and Martin (2004). The concept of face, known to Chinese as mien-tsu is central to Chinese construal of their social life (Chang and Holt 1994). In Chinese culture, using humor as a means of concealing one s problems is construed as a self-enhancing strategy rather than a self-defeating one. In the Chinese sample, as in the Canadian data, the modest size of the inter-correlations among the HSQ scales, as well as their di erential correlations with other constructs, provides further evidence that these are quite distinct dimensions of humor. As in the Canadian samples, A liative and Self-enhancing humor were highly correlated with Coping humor

15 Humor styles and coping humor in China 229 in the Chinese sample. The results further confirmed that Chinese males and females who employ humor to cope with stress and alleviate negative emotions tend to use humor in highly a liative and self-enhancing ways (indeed, the Self-enhancing humor scale of the HSQ and the CHS are conceptually very similar constructs). At the same time, the pattern of correlations among the HSQ scales suggests some di erences between the two cultures in the way these humor styles inter-relate. No correlation was found between Aggressive and A liative humor (as well as Aggressive and Self-enhancing humor) among males in Chinese. This is very similar to the pattern found in the Lebanese sample reported by Kazarian and Martin (2004). Thus, Canadian males who frequently joke and laugh in a friendly way with their friends also tend to engage in aggressive teasing and sarcasm, while A liative and Self-enhancing humor are quite independent from Aggressive humor in Chinese males. Furthermore, no significant correlation between Aggressive and Coping humor was found in the Chinese sample, suggesting that Chinese use less aggressive humor to deal with life stress than their Canadian counterparts do. One explanation is that while most North American jokes are sexual and aggressive, Chinese jokes deal more with social interaction (Shultz 1977), which implies that North Americans endure and use more aggressive humor than do Chinese. Another explanation is that Chinese are generally less aggressive than Canadians on average. Martin et al. (2003) reported that Aggressive humor was strongly related to aggressive and hostile personality traits (r ¼ :41, p <:001). Interestingly, Aubert et al. (2004) reported that aggressive behaviors directed toward the self or others were less frequent among Chinese Canadians than other Canadians. On the other hand, the correlation between Self-defeating and Coping humor was significant for Chinese females, which has not been found in Chinese males and Canadian females, indicating that Chinese females who use humor to cope with stress and relieve negative emotion also tend to use humor in a self-derogating or disparaging way, teasing themselves to please others and maintain group cohesiveness. It also suggests that when coping with stress, Chinese females use more Self-defeating humor than do Chinese males and their Canadian counterparts. The 7 item loadings on the single factor of the CHS showed a very similar structure to the original CHS. Compared to the original internal consistency of the CHS and that of Nevo et al. (2001), the reliability in this sample seemed somewhat better. The Cronbach alpha was increased by

16 230 G.-H. Chen and R. A. Martin omitting Item 4 ( I must admit that my life would probably be easier if I had more of a sense of humor ). The 6 item version of the CHS (omitting Item 4) is suggested for future use. Comparison of the means of the four HSQ scales and CHS indicates lower uses of all the four humor styles and Coping humor in China than in Canada. It seems that Canadians tend to use (or at least report using) humor of all kinds more than do Chinese. This may reflect a di erence in the value placed on the experience and expression of humor in the two cultures or countries. In the Canadian context, a sense of humor may be more highly valued as a desirable personality characteristic than in China, including the ability to use humor in a sarcastic and disparaging manner. Particularly, Canadians reported significantly higher uses of Aggressive humor than Chinese did, reflecting the fact that Canadians use more aggressive behaviors more generally than do Chinese (e.g., Aubert et al. 2004). On the CHS, the finding that Chinese use less Coping humor as compared with Canadians is quite similar to Nevo et al. s (2001) finding that Singaporean participants of Chinese origin relied less on humor when coping with di culty as compared to American participants. Our findings may lend support to the claim that Oriental cultures do not assign as important a role to the use of humor as a coping device as do Occidentals (Abe 1994; Nevo et al. 2001). A further possible explanation for these cultural di erences is that humor use may be moderated by people s socioeconomic status, political atmosphere, social personality types, etc. (e.g., Kuipers 2000; Warnars-Kleverlaan et al. 1996). The two countries are very similar in the finding of no gender di erences in A liative and Self-enhancing humor. However, whereas males tend to be significantly higher than females in the use of Aggressive and Self-defeating humor in Canada, the Chinese sample revealed no gender di erence in these two forms of humor either. There is also a di erence between the two cultures on the CHS. Chinese males tend to use more humor to cope with life stress than do Chinese females, a di erence which was not found in their Canadian counterparts. One explanation is that in Chinese culture, men usually have much higher social status than women, and society allows more humorous strategies and behaviors for men than women when coping with stress. As in the Canadian samples, younger participants in the Chinese sample showed more use of A liative and Aggressive humor than did older ones, even though the mean age di erence between the two groups was not great. This age di erence in humor styles

17 Humor styles and coping humor in China 231 may be due to the younger participants, who were full-time undergraduate students, having more social interactions in the school setting than do the older participants, most of whom were part-time students and full-time sta in their own workplaces, where less a liative joking and laughing with others is expected. An overall conclusion concerning the relationships of the SCL-90 to the four subscales of the HSQ and the CHS, as in the Canadian sample, is that A liative, Self-enhancing and Coping humor are associated with good mental health, while Aggressive and Self-defeating humor are related to poor mental health, although the relationships are somewhat weaker and less consistent with A liative and Aggressive humor. These results are consistent with the original assumptions underlying the HSQ that, in general, A liative and Self-enhancing humor are beneficial while Aggressive and Self-defeating humor are detrimental to well-being. Regression results showed that Self-enhancing, Self-defeating and Coping humor contributed significantly to the General Symptomatic Index of the SCL-90. Thus, mental health is more strongly related to the use of Self-enhancing and Coping humor (both of which have to do with humor used in coping and emotion regulation) and to Self-defeating humor (which appears to be a generally neurotic use of humor), and less strongly related to A liative and Aggressive humor (both of which have to do with the use of humor in interactions with others). However, it is important to recognize that causality cannot be inferred from these correlational findings. It may be that these humor styles are a consequence rather than a cause of good or poor mental health. It is also possible that humor and mental health are not causally related to each other at all, but that a third variable (e.g., extraversion) a ects both mental health and humor independently (e.g., Kuiper and Borowicz-Sibenik 2005). This is the first study of humor styles and Coping humor in Mainland China and, to our knowledge, the first empirical psychometric study on psychological aspects of humor in that country. Though we have had a number of interesting findings in this area, further investigation is clearly needed. Future research should also examine additional variables such as facework, attitudes and values towards humor, and individualism and collectivism as they relate to humor styles in the two cultures. These variables may be used to further understand the di erences in humor styles and Coping humor in these two cultures. It is also recommended that continued e orts be directed at developing a more universal HSQ scale or culture-specific yet highly applicable HSQ scale. In particular, it

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