Citation

Meyer NA, Helle AC, Tucker RP, Lengel GJ, DeShong HL, Wingate LR, Mullins-Sweatt SN. Psychiatry Res. 2017; 249: 337-342.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. Electronic address: stephanie.sweatt@okstate.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.038

PMID

28152468

Abstract

The way individuals use humor to interact interpersonally has been associated with general personality, depression, and suicidality. Certain humor styles may moderate the risk for suicide ideation (SI) in individuals who are high in specific risk factors (e.g., thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness). Previous research suggests a relationship between humor styles and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and an increased risk of suicidality and suicide completion in individuals with BPD. Participants (n =176) completed measures of BPD traits, SI, and humor styles. It was hypothesized that BPD traits would be positively correlated with negative humor styles and negatively correlated with positive humor styles, and that humor styles would significantly moderate BPD traits and SI.

RESULTS showed that BPD traits were negatively correlated with self-enhancing humor styles and positively correlated with self-defeating humor styles, but that they were not significantly correlated with affiliative or aggressive humor styles. Bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that the affiliative, self-enhancing, and self-defeating humor styles significantly moderated BPD traits and SI, while the aggressive humor style did not.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Borderline personality disorder; Humor; Maladaptive personality; Suicide ideation