The Mediating Role of Humor in Relation With COVID‐19 Fear, Anxiety and Depression of Bangladeshi People: A Cross‐Sectional Study

TL;DR

This study explores how humor can reduce fear, anxiety, and depression related to the pandemic in Bangladesh.

Contribution

It identifies humor as a mediator that lessens mental health impacts of COVID-19 fear.

Findings

Sense of humor is negatively correlated with fear, anxiety, and depression.

Humor mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health outcomes.

The model explains 27% of anxiety and 12.5% of depression variance through humor.

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID‐19) outbreak induced fear and worry, which has been linked to a higher risk of mental health problems. A sense of humor may function by assisting in the reappraisal of threats or by making fear, anxiety, and depression less threatening. However, little attention was paid to its roles. Thus, this current study aims to investigate the relationship and mediating role of humor in the connection between fear of COVID‐19, anxiety, and depression.

A cross‐sectional survey was conducted among Bangladeshi online users, a sample size of 628 (68.5% male) online users from different parts of Bangladesh. Their average age was 29.82 ( ± 9.67) years old. Sense of Humor Questionnaire‐6 was used to measure the sense of humor, General Anxiety Disorder‐7 scale was applied to determine anxiety, Patient Health Questionnaire‐9 was used to measure depression, and the Fear of COVID‐19 scale was used to measure the fear of the participants.

Sense of humor is reversely associated with fear of COVID‐19 (r = −0.151), anxiety (r = −0.226), and depression (r = −0.183). From mediation analysis, the model indicated that humor mediated the relationship between fear of COVID‐19, anxiety, and depression. The hypothesis model accounted for approximately 27% and 12.5% of the variance in anxiety and depression, respectively.

This finding indicated that a greater sense of humor leads to less anxiety and depression. In another way, a sense of humor could lessen COVID‐19 fear and boost the mental health of the Bangladeshi people during this pandemic. This finding might help us understand that humor could be a protective and effective technique to fight pandemic fear. This study was only conducted in Bangladeshi culture who were literate and able to use the internet.

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