ArticleJournal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England)2025
Humor as a double-edged weapon in psychopathology: light and dark humor styles, coping, and personality in police mental health.
Article in Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundPolice officers are at higher risk for mental health issues. Research that advances knowledge on job demands and resources remains crucial. Research on humor is sparse, despite it being commonplace in the workplace, and an accessible resource. In parallel with traditional demands and resource variables, this study thoroughly assesses humor and develops an integrative model.
methodsA total of 2291 officers from 24 agencies and 11 job roles participated. They responded to empirically-validated questionnaires on work demands (stress, trauma), 4 pathologies (post-traumatic stress disorder, burnout, anxiety, depression), 14 coping strategies, 8 humor styles, 5 personality traits, professional (work experience, management) and demographic variables (education). Prevalence analyses, t-tests, regression, clustering, and path modelling were performed.
resultsThe integrative model provides an overall account of the relationships between job demands, coping, humor, personality, pathology, and demographics. Dark comic styles were never associated with fewer pathological symptoms, only greater. Light comic styles, especially Humor and Jokes, are indicators of good mental health. Extraversion was linked to greater light humor use, and Conscientiousness and Agreeableness to less dark humor. Those tending towards adaptive coping strategies tend towards light humor, and inversely, maladaptive towards dark humor.
conclusionsHumor, especially the observation of dark humor, may be a crucially convenient tool to rapidly and discreetly identify an officer carrying residual distress, and hence intervene preemptively. A more resilient force may be instilled by fostering, in agency culture, regular light humor use, and routinely encouraging adaptive coping examples.
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