Humor Styles, Self-efficacy and Prosocial Tendencies in Middle Adolescents

This study explored humor styles, prosocial tendencies, and empathic/social self-efficacy in 302 Italian middle adolescents. We used Humor Styles Questionnaire (Penzo et al., 2011), Empathic and Social Self-efficacy Scales (Caprara et al., 2001), and Prosocial Tendencies Measure (Carlo & Randall, 2002). Results: affiliative and self-enhancing humor positively correlated with empathic/social self-efficacy, while self-defeating humor negatively correlated with social self-efficacy. Helping behavior in emotionally critical and dire situations positively correlated with empathic/social self-efficacy and, only for boys, with affiliative humor. Moreover, public and anonymous prosocial tendencies negatively correlated with affiliative humor. Differences for sex and age emerged.