Coping with teasing: Children's evaluations of humorous responses

Teasing is a social interaction with both positive and negative connotations. In its negative forms, teasing can have serious and long-lasting effects on a child's emotional development. In its more positive forms, teasing is viewed as a way of playing, joking, and bonding with peers. The humor and ambiguity present in the teasing interaction may offer a key to helping children learn to negotiate the teasing exchange successfully.;The present study focused on the importance of children's responses to teasing and the potential for the response to alter others' perceptions of the teased child. Forty-two elementary school students responded to a questionnaire designed to measure perceptions of teasing and teasing reactions. The specific types of teasing reactions were: ignore teasing, self-effacing humor, self-enhancing humor, and other-insulting humor.;The results indicated that response to teasing did affect participant perceptions of teased vignette characters. Children's evaluative judgments of teasing reactions also differed based on the response condition. Teacher and student ratings of students as teasers and as teasing targets failed to correlate, suggesting teachers may not be fully aware of children's teasing behaviors. Some sex differences are also discussed. Implications for practice, including social skills training focusing on reactions to teasing, are considered.