Managing Psychological Distress with Situational Humour in Young Adults

About 600 million people, more than half India's population, are under 25 years old and it is the most valuable segment of the population. But nowadays, stress, anxiety, and depression are so very prevalent among young adults and costly to every individual. Mental health screening is often an important initial strategy, but the resultant data are often unknown or difficult to interpret. This study examined the effect of situational humor as a coping strategy for psychological distress such as depression, stress, and anxiety among young adults. Participants were 100 young adults of Delhi and NCR, 21 to 25yearolds. The Situational Humour Response Questionnaire and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale were used to conduct the research. A significant gender difference was found on depression scale at 0.05 levels but there was no significant gender difference on the stress, anxiety and situational humour scales. A significant negative correlation was found between psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) and situational humour at 0.01 levels. The impact of situational humor was found to be higher on stress as compared to depression and anxiety. Taken together, these findings suggest that situational humor may be an effective form of distress management. Hence, humor can be seen as an adaptive coping strategy as it has different adaptive consequences.