Resilient Youths Use Humor to Enhance Socioemotional Functioning During a Day in the Life

In order to extend previous early years humor research into early adolescence, the authors adapted an innovative ecological research method such that at-risk adolescents could be filmed during an entire waking day in their life. Community youth advocates nominated one 15-year-old female and one 14-year-old male as doing well despite adverse circumstances. We examined the types and functions of these youths’ humor within their social contexts. Their humor included joking, teasing, physical play, light tones, irony, sarcasm, and mocking/parody. Humor served many socioemotional roles, such as navigating complex socially sensitive topics and situations, and facilitating affiliation with friends and family. Humor assists in traversing challenging social terrain and can serve as a protective factor under risky circumstances.