Even if your kids roll their eyes, keep making jokes, research says
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Researchers surveyed about 300 people about their experiences being raised with or without humour and their views on their childhood, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
When things would get tense between the kids in my house, sometimes my dad would sit beside us and talk out how to address our feelings and resolve conflict.
Other times, he would start a food fight at dinner or scoop us up unceremoniously in our jeans and T-shirts for a group jump into the backyard pool.
And it turns out, humour like that may be an important skill in parenting, according to new research.
Researchers surveyed about 300 people about their experiences being raised with or without humour and their views on their childhood, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
People who were raised by adults who used humour were found to have a better view of their parents or caregivers, more likely to say they have a good relationship with them, more likely to say they did a good job, and reply that they would use the same parenting techniques, said senior study author Dr. Benjamin Levi, professor of pediatrics and humanities at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine.
The study is small, and the population isn’t very diverse, said Dr. Katie Hurley, senior clinical advisor for The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to teen and young adult mental health and suicide prevention, and a child and adolescent psychotherapist. She was not involved in the research.
It is the initial step in a broader investigation, Levi added. “This is just the very first of several studies that we’re doing to better understand both how humour was used with children and … what sort of they (the children) took away from that,” he said.
