中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: We investigated the interaction effects between social network indicators (in/out-degree centrality) and humor expression in relation to adolescents' experiences of being bullied. Methods: The sample included 2,474 seventh to ninth graders in Taiwan via stratified, multistage, random cluster sampling. We used UCINET software to obtain social network indicators using the peer nomination method. Experiences of being bullied were classified as physical, verbal, and/or relational. We measured each student's main types of humor expression with the Taiwan Adolescent Humor Instrument (TAHI). Results: The results showed that if students had low in-degree centrality (i.e., were nominated by only a few classmates as a person to share sad stories with) or frequently used negative humor expressions (i.e., self-deprecating humor or other-devaluing humor), they were prone to experiencing all types of bullying. In addition, we identified an interaction effect between out-degree centrality (i.e., the number of nominated classmates a person wants to share sad stories with) and the different types of humor expression in relation to the experience of being bullied. That is to say, if students had a low out-degree (nominated few others) and often used other-devaluing humor, they were more likely to be physically or relationally bullied. However, if they had a high out-degree and often used self-deprecating humor, they were only likely to be relationally bullied. Conclusions: We suggest that through frequent thematic talk sessions or parent-child talks, teachers and parents could routinely observe students' social network positions and indicators (e.g., we counted the number of classmates with whom a person would share sad stories as well as the total number of classmates who nominated that person). Furthermore, we recommend future researchers design class intervention programs to help students learn how to express humor and enhance their social skills, which will help to reduce the occurrence of bullying.