Was it just joke? Cyberbullying perpetrations and their styles of humor

Abstract

The present study examines humor styles of cyberbullying perpetrations. Turkish adolescents (N = 489) aged 15-18 years were recruited from different high school types. Participants completed the Revised Cyberbullying Inventory (RCBI, Topcu and Baker, 2010) and Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003) Collected data were analyzed Pearson dorrelation coefficients and standart multiple regression. Maladaptive humor styles namely aggressive humor (r = 0.349, p < 0.05) and self-defeating humor (r = 0.138, p < 0.01) significantly correlated cyberbullying perpetrations. Also standard multiple regressions revealed that aggressive humor was a significant individual predictors of cyberbullying perpetration such that as agressive humor decreases, likelihood of cyberbullying perpetration increases. These results indicate that maladaptive humor styles (aggressive humor and self-defeating humor) may successfully address cyberbullying behaviour. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.