An Exploratory Study of Teachers’ Perceptions of School Administrators’ Affiliative Humor, Organizational Support, and Well-Being

This study aimed to reveal the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of school administrators’ affiliative humor use and teachers’ mental well-being by focusing on the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS). A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 542 teachers working in public primary schools located in Antalya, Turkey, using three measures: affiliative humor, perceived organizational support, and mental well-being. Mediation testing was performed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedures. The findings of the study revealed that teachers’ perceptions of school administrators’ affiliative humor use were positively related to teachers’ mental well-being and POS. Furthermore, teachers’ POS was found to be positively related to their mental well-being. The results further suggested that POS was associated with the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of administrators’ affiliative humor and teachers’ mental well-being, indicating a partial mediating role within the examined model. Consequently, our results emphasize that when teachers perceive higher levels of affiliative humor by their school administrators, they tend to report higher levels of perceived organizational support (POS), and this perception is associated with higher levels of teachers’ mental well-being.