| Humor, which is different from laughter, has been shown to affect a person's mood, stress level, functioning, and acute pain report. However, it is unclear how those with chronic pain use humor to cope. This dissertation expanded Kuiper and Martin's (1998) study on laughter, stress and negative mood to assessed the effects of coping humor on chronic pain and its relationship to stress, mood, and disability. For fourteen consecutive days, 34 participants from a pain clinic rated their pain, mood, stress, use of humor, and disability. Three statistical analyses were done: aggregated, disaggregated (same day and next day), and subjects as separate studies. This study was not able to replicate Kuiper and Martin's significant interaction of humor moderating stress and negative mood. However, humor was found to moderate stress and disability. In general, chronic pain patients in this study were not seen to use humor to cope with chronic pain or disability. Possible reasons for lack of associations for humor are explored. Limitations and future research are discussed. |
