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Relationship between attachment styles and mental well-being among young adults: Role of benevolent humor

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Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between attachment styles and mental well-being. It was further intended to examine the mediating role of humor (benevolent). Four hundred young adults (men = 197, women = 203) mean age of participants was 20.97 (SD = 6.41) participated in this study by completing a paper and pencil survey. The sample was approached through a convenient sampling technique. To collect data, the following scales were used, Benevolent Humor Subscale (Heintz et al., in Frontiers in psychology, 9, 92, 2018), Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(4), 644, 1990), and Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Health Well-being Scale (Hauch et al., in Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2022). Correlation analysis showed that attachment styles significantly negatively relate to benevolent humor and mental well-being. Whereas, a significant positive relationship was found between benevolent humor and mental well-being. Results of mediation analysis showed that when an indirect effect of benevolent humor has been controlled, both attachment styles such as attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance significantly predicted mental well-being suggesting partial mediation. Inclusively the study has many implications in the different fields for young adults and researchers.

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Acknowledgements

We thanked all participants for their voluntary participation in this research.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan

    Rabia Riaz & Sadia Malik

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  1. Rabia Riaz
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Correspondence to Sadia Malik.

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Riaz, R., Malik, S. Relationship between attachment styles and mental well-being among young adults: Role of benevolent humor. Curr Psychol 43, 4387–4393 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04594-1

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