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

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.

Three dimensions of desirability of control: divergent relations with psychological and physical well-being.

Objective: To examine unique relations of three distinct dimensions of desirability of control with psychological and physical well-being and coping. Design: Study 1 (n = 122) surveyed undergraduates' response to everyday stressors, and Study 2 (n = 105) examined undergraduates' adjustment to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks at 1 and 3 months post-attack. Main outcome measures included psychological distress, perceived stress, rumination, health behaviors, alcohol use and active vs. avoidant coping. Study 1 Results: Self- and other-control were associated with active coping, whereas relinquishing control was linked with avoidant coping. Only relinquishing control was uniquely linked with outcomes, including worse psychological and physical well-being and alcohol use; avoidant coping mediated relations to psychological well-being. Study 2 Results: Again, self-control was associated with active coping whereas relinquishing control was linked with avoidant coping. Self-control was associated with enhanced psychological well-being at T1 and increases in well-being over time; by contrast, relinquishing control was associated with worse T1 psychological well-being, which was mediated by avoidant coping. Conclusion: This is the first study to examine the unique contribution of each DOC dimension with outcomes. Self-control and relinquishing control showed divergent relations to psychological well-being, mediated by different coping pathways.

Humor Use Moderates the Relation of Stressful Life Events With Psychological Distress.

Three studies examined humor and adjustment to stressful events. In Study 1, patients with fibromyalgia syndrome ( N = 22) reported on mental and physical adjustment, social interaction, and reappraisal of their illness. Dispositional humor was associated with reduced distress and fewer physical symptoms. Study 2 ( N = 109) examined undergraduates' reports of stressful events. Dispositional, self-enhancing, affiliative, and self-defeating humor showed direct effects on distress, which were mediated by social interaction and reappraisal. Moreover, dispositional and aggressive humor showed stress-buffering effects. Study 3 ( N = 105) examined undergraduates' adjustment to the September 11, 2001, attacks at 1 and 3 months postattack. At T1, affiliative humor showed a stress-buffering effect on distress. Social interaction mediated the relation of self-enhancing humor with reduced T1 distress, and mediated relations of aggressive and self-defeating humor with greater distress. Relations of T1 dispositional and self-defeating humor to changes in T2 distress were mediated by reappraisal.

Social interactions and cardiovascular reactivity during problem disclosure among friends.

The authors examined the relations of social interactions with cardiovascular response in the context of two friends disclosing a problem. They also examined the relations of the sex composition of the dyad and partner gender-related traits (communion/agency) with social interactions. Same-sex and opposite-sex dyads (N = 79) came to the lab. One friend disclosed a real-life problem while the partner provided support; cardiovascular response was monitored. Women provided more emotional support than men, and this sex difference was due to women's higher levels of communion. Agency was linked with greater advice, whereas unmitigated communion was linked with greater negative interactions. Negative interactions predicted slower diastolic blood pressure (DBP) recovery, whereas advice predicted slower heart rate (HR) recovery. Sex composition of dyad moderated some of these effects.