Effects of humor styles and individual authenticity on depression among college students / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the mediating effect of humor styles between individual authenticity and depression among college students.Methods:A total of 247 college students were surveyed by the humor styles questionnaire, the authenticity questionnaire and the Chinese version of the Beck depression inventory-Ⅱ.SPSS 26.0 was used for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, and AMOS 23.0 software was used for structural equation model test.The Bootstrap method was applied to test the mediating effect.Results:(1)The individual authenticity score was (53.35±7.80), the depression score was 6.00(3.00, 11.00), and the scores of self-defeating, self-enhancing and affiliative humor styles were (15.00±3.45), (17.70±3.04) and (27.21±4.17). (2) Correlation analysis showed that individual authenticity was positively correlated with self-enhancing humor ( r=0.20, P<0.01), and negatively correlated with self-defeating humor and depression ( r=-0.16, P<0.05; r=-0.30, P<0.01). Self-enhancing humor was negatively correlated with depression ( r=-0.17, P<0.01). (3) The results of mediating analysis showed that the total effect between self-enhancing humor and depression was -0.318.The self-enhancing humor style had a partial mediating effect between individual authenticity and depression, with an effect value of -0.055 (95% CI=-0.103, -0.007), accounting for 17.3% of the total effect.The direct effect value of individual authenticity on depression was -0.245 (95% CI=-0.376, -0.119), accounting for 77.0% of the total effect. Conclusion:It indicates that individual authenticity can directly affect depression and also can affect depression through self-enhancing humor.It is helpful to understand the relationship between individual authenticity and mental health, and provide a strategic reference for preventing and intervention of depression among college students.