Humor in Parenting: Does It Have a Role?

Objectives: To gather pilot data on the use of humor in the raising of children.

Methodology: We developed and field-tested a 10-item survey to measure people’s experiences being raised with humor, and their views regarding humor as a parenting tool. Responses were aggregated into Disagree, Indeterminate, and Agree, and analyzed using standard statistical methods.

Results: Of the 312 respondents, most identified as male (63.6%) and white (76.6%); and 11.3% reported being 18-25 years old, 49.4% 26-35 years old, and 39.4% 36-45 years old. The majority reported that: the people who raised them used humor in their parenting (55.2%); humor could be an effective parenting tool (71.8%); humor as a parenting tool has more potential benefit than harm (63.3%); they either use or plan to use humor in parenting their own children (61.8%); and they would value a course on how to utilize humor in parenting (69.7%).

Conclusions: In this pilot study, respondents of child-bearing/rearing age reported positive views about humor as a parenting tool.