www.ejop.org Perceiv ed Parental Warmth and Rejection in Childhood as Predictors of Humor Styles and Subjective Happiness

This research examined maternal and paternal warmth (acceptance) and rejection (hostility and aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection), as remembered by young adults, in relation to humor styles and subjective happiness. A total of 283 Lebanese college students completed the Arabic versions of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for Mother and Father, the Humor Styles Questionnaire, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. As predicted, parental warmth correlated positively and parental overall rejection and specific rejection scores correlated negatively with subjective happiness ratings. Parental warmth tended to correlate positively with use of adaptive humor styles, and negatively with use of maladaptive humor styles, while parental rejection tended to correlate positively with use of maladaptive humor styles and negatively with use of adaptive humor styles. In addition, self-enhancing humor mediated the relationships between parental warmth and rejection and subjective happiness. Overall, the findings are consistent with the view that parental warmth and rejection might contribute to the development of particular styles of humor, which in turn may contribute to later happiness and well-being.

Parental acceptance and rejection theory (PARTheory) is a pancultural socialization theory that focuses on the w armth and rejection dimensions of parenting and their consequences on the behav ioral, cognitiv e, and emotional dev elopment of children and personality functioning of adults in different cultures and populations (Khaleque, Rohner, Riaz, Laukkala & Sadeque, 2007;Rohner, Khaleque & Cournoyer, 2009). W arm and accepting parents tend to show physical and v erbal lov e and affection tow ard their children, thus inducing in them feelings of being lov ed and accepted. Rejecting parents, on the other hand, tend to dislike, disapprov e of, or resent their children, thus inv oking in them feelings of rejection or being unlov ed and unw anted. The Perceiv ed Parental Acceptance/Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ; Rohner & Khaleque, 2005a;Rohner, Saav edra & Granum, 1978 a), w hich comes in three v ersions (child, adult, and parent), is the most w idely used measure of parental w armth and rejection. I t assesses three forms of rejection: (1) hostility and aggression, (2) indifference and neglect, and (3) undifferentiated rejection, w hich refers to the belief that one is not cared about or lov ed by parents, ev en in the absence of clear parental behav iors of neglect or aggression.

PART Personality Subtheory
The personality subtheory of PARTheory attempts to identify and predic t the consequences of perceiv ed parental acceptance and rejection on the behav ioral and personality dispositions of children and their personality functioning in adulthood ), as measured by the Personality Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ; Rohner & Khaleque, 2005b;Rohner, Saav edra, & Granum, 1978b). The PAQ measures sev en personality traits or dispositions that collectiv ely reflect psychological maladjustment: hostility/aggression; dependence; negativ e self-esteem; negativ e self-adequacy; emotional unresponsiv eness; emotional instability; and negativ e w orldv iew . Studies that hav e examined the relation betw een parental acceptance and rejection and psychological adjustment among children and adults hav e inv ariably found that rejected indiv iduals, regardless of their gender, culture, race, or socioeconomic status, show more negativ e personality traits and ov erall psychological maladjustment than do accepted children Rohner, 2004Rohner, , 2005). Similarly, cross-cultural and intracultural studies hav e provided ev idence of w orldw ide correlations betw een parental rejection and other mental health problems including anxiety and insecurity, depression, borderline personality disorder, substance use, and behav ior al problems such as conduct disorder and delinquency (Rohner & Britner, 2002;).

Perceived Parental Warmth and Rejection
73 PARTheory Personality Subtheory: Expansion and Extension Researchers in this topic area hav e focused particularly on the univ ersality of the association betw een parental rejection and specific forms of psychological maladjustment, and on the implications of this association for the enhancement of the w elfare of humanity in the global v illage (Rohner, 2004). Nev ertheless, the main assumption of the theory (parental rejection has negativ e effects on psychological adjustment and personality functioning of both children and adults) continues to stimulate confirmation of the postulate in different countries, particularly the culturally rich but politically v olatile Arab Middle East. Thus far, sev eral studies in the region of the Arab Middle East hav e supported the association betw een parental w armth and psychological adjustment: Bahraini youth (Al-Falaij, nd), students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Aljasir, 2006;Alzahrani, 2009;Zidan, nd), Jordanian adolescents (Dw airy, 2010), Egyptian and Yemeni children (Asker, 1996), Egyptian college students (Salama, 1986), Qatari children (Khaliefa, 2004), and married adults in Kuw ait (Parmar, I brahim, & Rohner, 2008).
Nev ertheless, prev ious research on the consequences of the parental "acceptancerejection syndrome " has been in the main focused on the constellation of the sev en personality dispositions as assessed by the PAQ. The adv ent of positiv e psychology w hich has w idened the scope of psychology to the science of happiness and positiv e indiv idual traits (Seligman, 2000), and the recent resurgence of interest in sense of humor as a personality v ariable (Martin, 2007) hav e allow ed exploration of parenting behav iors in relation to positiv e personality dispositions and somatic, psychological, and social outcomes beyond the " magnificent sev en" on w hich PARTheory's personality subtheory has been grounded. As such, in the present study, the consequences of parental w armth on sense of humor are examined.
Consideration of humor styles in the context of the univ ersalist "acceptancerejection syndrome " is particularly relev ant in v iew of the paucity of research on the dev elopmental trajectories of humorous personality traits ge nerally Vernon, Martin, Schermer, & Mackie, 2008), and the absence of any study on the association of parental w armth and rejection w ith humor styles. Additionally, the recent reformulation of sense of humor as a personality disposition w ith both adaptiv e and maladaptiv e dimensions prov ides a conceptual framew ork for exploring the differential socialization of humor styles and ev aluation of their beneficial and detrimental effects on subjectiv e happiness, in a similar w ay to those studies that hav e related humor styles to physical, psychological, and social w ell-being (Kuiper & Harris, 2009;Martin, 2001Martin, , 2007.

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The Present Study I n the present study, the assumption of PARTheory that parental w armth and rejection in childhood are associated w ith subjectiv e w ell-being in adulthood w as tested in the Lebanese context, using a measure of subjectiv e happiness to assess w ell-being. To our know ledge the consequences of parental acceptance-rejection, as conceptualized by PARTheory, on the cognitiv e, emotional, and behav ioral function of young Lebanese adults is not know n. I t w as important to demonstrate empirically that predictions from the PARTheory apply to young adults in Lebanese culture. Tw o prev ious studies in the Arab Middle East hav e used the Adult PARQ to examine maternal acceptance in Egypt and maternal and paternal acceptance in Kuw ait in relation to adult psychological adjustment but not subjectiv e happiness (Parmar et al., 2008;Salama, 1986).
A second aim of the study w as to use the Arabic Humor Styles Questionnaire to explore the relation betw een parental w armth and rejection and tw o potentially adaptiv e (Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing) and tw o potentially maladaptiv e (Aggressiv e and Self-Defeating) humor styles (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003). To our know ledge, humor styles hav e not been examined before in relation to the "parental acceptance-rejection syndrome." Such a study extends the constellation of the personality dispositions measured by the PAQ that hav e been univ ersally associated w ith parenting  to the sense of humor domain. Affiliativ e humor inv olv es the use of humor to enhance one's relationships w ith others by saying funny things, telling jokes, and engaging in spontaneous w itty banter to amuse others, to facilitate relationships, and to reduce interpersonal tensions. Self-Enhancing humor inv olv es the use of humor to regulate emotions and cope w ith stress through a humorous outlook on life, frequently being amused by the incongruities of life, and maintaining a humorous perspectiv e ev en in the face of stress or adv ersity. Aggressiv e humor inv olves the use of humor to enhance the self at the expense of others, by means of sarcasm, teasing, ridicule, derision, "put-dow n" humor, or disparagement humor. Self-Defeating humor inv olv es the use of humor to enhance relationships at the expense of the self by means of excessiv ely self-disparaging humor, amusing others by doing or saying funny things at one's ow n expense as a w ay of ingratiating oneself to others or gaining approv al, and using humor as a form of defensiv e denial or av oidance.
A considerable amount of research has demonstrated that these four humor styles are differentially related to particular aspects of psychosocial health and w e ll-being (see Martin, 2007 for a rev iew of this research). I n particular, Self-enhancing humor Perceived Parental Warmth and Rejection 75 tends to be associated w ith low er lev els of depression and anxiety and higher selfesteem and general emotional w ell-being. Affiliativ e humor, w hile somew hat more w eakly positiv ely correlated w ith emotional w ell-being, tends to be particularly associated w ith satisfactory interpersonal relationships. Aggressiv e humor, although generally unrelated to emotional w ell-being, tends to be negativ ely correlated w ith relationship satisfaction. Finally, Self-defeating humor has been found to correlate positiv ely w ith depression and anxiety, and negativ ely w ith self-esteem and emotional w ell-being in North American (Martin et al., 2003), European (Saroglou & Scariot, 2002), and Chinese samples (Chen & Martin, 2007). How ev er, in past research w ith Middle East samples, Self-defeating humor has generally been found to be unrelated to measures of emotional w ell-being (Kazarian & Martin, 2004;Kazarian & Martin, 2006;Taher, Kazarian, & Martin, 2008), suggesting that this selfdisparaging and ingratiating form of humor may not be as clearly detrimental to w ell-being in the Middle Eastern cultural context as it appears to be in some other cultures. Based on this past research, w e expected that in this Arabic-speaking sample, Affiliativ e and Self-enhancing humor w ould be positiv ely correlated w ith subjectiv e happiness w hereas Self-defeating and Aggressiv e humor w ould be unrelated to this v ariable. Such a finding w ould prov ide further support to the distinction betw een beneficial and detrimental humor styles.
Furthermore, and consistent w ith the expanded PARTheory's personality subtheory, w e expected a link betw een parental w armth and rejection in childhood and adult use of adaptiv e and maladaptiv e humor. More specifically, w e hypothesized that remembered parental w armth and acceptance in childhood w ould correlate positiv ely w ith Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing humor styles and negativ ely w ith Aggressiv e and Self-Defeating humor styles. Similarly, w e expected ov erall parental rejection and the specific forms of rejection to correlate negativ ely w ith adaptiv e humor styles and positiv ely w ith maladaptiv e humor styles. Such findings w ould prov ide support for the v iew that parental interactions during childhood may hav e a lasting effect on personality dev elopment (in this case, humor styles).
The third and final aim of this study w as to examine the potential mediating effect of humor styles on the relation betw een recalled parental w armth and rejection in childhood and subjectiv e happiness in young adulthood. We hypothesized that adaptiv e and maladaptiv e humor styles may be one pathw ay by w hich early experiences of parental w armth and rejection may lead to increased or decreased happiness. For example, indiv iduals w ho experience greater parental w armth during childhood may be more likely to dev elop affiliativ e and self-enhancing styles of humor during the course of dev elopment, w hich in turn might contribute to higher lev els of subjectiv e happiness later in life. On the other hand, indiv iduals w ho experience greater parental rejection during childhood may be less likely to dev elop adaptiv e styles of humor, w hich in turn might contribute to low er lev els of subjectiv e happiness.

Method Participants
A total of 283 Lebanese univ ersity students (62.5% female) participated in the study.
The majority of the participants w ere from the Lebanese Univ ersity (n = 193), a staterun institution of higher learning, and the remainder from the American Univ er sity of Beirut, a priv ate educational setting. The mean age w as 20.8 years (SD = 3.34, range = 17 to 44). Reported marital status w as 89.6% single, 7.9% married, and 2.5% other.

Arabic Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for Mother and Father
(PARQ). The Arabic Adult PARQ for Mother and Father (Rohner & Khaleque, 2005a;Rohner et al., 1978a) are tw o self-report measures of adults' perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance and rejection w hen they w ere about sev en to 12 years o f age. The Mother and Father v ersions, each comprising 60 items, differ only in w hich parent they refer to. Each measure prov ides an ov erall rating and scores on four parental behav ioral domains: Warmth (20 items; e.g., "Said nice things about me), Hostility/Aggression (15 items; e.g., "Ridiculed and made fun of me"), I ndifference/Neglect (15 items; e.g., "Paid no attention w hen I asked for help"), and Undifferentiated Rejection (10 items; e.g., "Did not really lov e me"). Respondents rate separately their mothers' and fathers' w armth and rejection using a 4-point Likert scale (4 = almost alw ays true, 1 = almost nev er true), higher scores reflecting higher ov erall rejection, Hostility/Aggression, I ndifference/Neglect, Undifferentiated Rejection, and Warmth. Ov erall Adult PARQ rejection scores range from 60-240, w ith scores below the midpoint of 150 indicating recollections of more acceptance than rejection in childhood, and scores abov e the midpoint indicating more recalled rejection than acceptance. The Mother and Father v ersions of the PARQ hav e been v alidated cross-culturally w ith robust reliability and v alidity findings including internal consistencies exceeding .70 for the ov erall scores and the four domains Rohner & Couroyer, 1994). Similarly, the Arabic PARQ has show n appropriate internal consistencies (Parmar et al., 2008;Salama, 1986 (Martin et al., 2003 ;Taher et al., 2008) is a 32-item measure comprising four 8-item scales assessing different styles of humor: Affiliativ e (e.g., "I laugh and joke a lot w ith my friends"); Self-Enhancing (e.g., "My humorous outlook on life keeps me from getting ov erly upset or depressed about things"); Aggressiv e (e.g., "I f someone makes a mistake, I w ill often tease them about it"); and Self-Defeating humor (e.g., "I often try to make people like or accept me more by saying something funny about my ow n w eaknesses, blunders, or faults"). Respondents indicate the degree to w hich they agree w ith each item using a 7-point Likert scale. Martin et al. (2003) reported internal consistencies for the four scales in the range of .77 to .81. I n the present study, the internal consistencies of the Arabic HSQ w ere .66 for Affiliativ e, .74 for Self Enhancing, .59 for Aggressiv e and .69 for Self Defeating humor, findings comparable to those reported by Taher et al.

The Arabic Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS).
The SHS (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) is a 4-item global measure of the degree to w hich one is a happy or an unhappy person. Respondents are asked to respond to the items on a scale of 1 (not a v ery happy person) to 7 (v ery happy person), higher scores reflecting higher subjectiv e happiness. Lyubomirsky and Lepper reported internal consistencies ranging from .79 to .94 for the original v ersion of the SHS, and Sw ami (2008) reported an internal consistency of .93 for a Malay v ersion. For the present study, the original v ersion of the SHS w as translated into Arabic by a professional translator, and the Arabic version w as then translated back to English by another professional translator, independent of the first translator. The tw o English v ersions were then compared and differences reconciled. Care w as taken to ensure equiv alence rather than literacy in translation. I n the present study, the internal consistency of the Arabic SHS w as .75.

Procedure
Participants completed the measures in group testing sessions. All measures w ere administered in the Arabic language. The three measures w ere administered to participants in randomized order to control for potential order effects.

Descriptiv e Statistics and Gender Differences
The means and standard dev iations for all the measures for the total sample and for females and males separately are presented in Table 1. The mean ov erall rejection  Parmar et al. (2008) for Kuw aiti adults, and suggest that as a group Lebanese college youth remembered their mothers and fathers in childhood as substantially w arm, lov ing and accepting. As can be seen in Table 1, Lebanese males and females w ere comparable in their ratings of their mothers on w armth and the specific forms of rejection. Males, how ev er, rated their fathers significantly low er on w armth (t(261)=3.32, p < .001), and higher on ov erall rejection (t(260)=5.13, p < .001) and the specific forms of rejectio n (Hostility/Aggression (t(261)=5.70, p < .001), I ndifference/Neglect (t(261)=4.91, p < .001), and Undifferentiated Rejection (t(261)=4.38, p < .001)) than did their female counterparts. This pattern of sex differences is similar to that reported by Dw airy (2010) but at odds w ith findings reported by others (Cournoyer, Sethi, & Cordero, 2005;Kim & Rohner, 2003). While no firm conclusions can be draw n about possible sex differences in responses to the mother and father v ersions of the PARQ, our findings may be unique in reflecting the sex-specific Lebanese cultural image of the "strict father and benev olent mother" (Kim & Rohner).
With regard to subjectiv e happiness, the mean score of 4.7 for this sample w as similar to means reported for US and Russian college students (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), and suggests that Lebanese youth in this group construed themselv es as hav ing a generally happy disposition. Subjectiv e happiness scores did not differ betw een males and females, a finding w hich is also consistent w ith prev ious research (Lyubomirsky & Lepper;Sw ami, 2007).
With regard to humor styles, mean scores w ere highest for Affiliativ e humor follow ed by Self-Enhancing, Aggressiv e, and Self-Defeating humor, findings that are comparable to those reported by Taher et al. (2008). With regard to sex differences, males and females reported comparable use of Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing humor, but males reported significantly more use of Aggressiv e (t(270) = 2.62, p < .009) and Self-Defeating humor (t(270) = 2.98, p < .003) than did females. These gender differences are consistent w ith those found prev iously in North American and Lebanese samples (Kazarian & Martin, 2004;Martin et al., 2003). Table 2 show s the correlations betw een PARQ parental acceptance-rejection scores and the measures of humor styles and subjectiv e happiness. As postulated, higher scores on maternal and paternal ov erall rejection and specific rejection ratings w ere significantly associated w ith low er reports of subjectiv e happiness. On the other hand, as expected, maternal and paternal w armth w ere significantly associated w ith higher reports of subjectiv e happiness. Taken together, the findings w ith subjectiv e happiness support the PARTheory postulate that parental acceptance and rejection are likely predictors of emotional consequences in adulthood.

Humor Styles and Subjectiv e Happiness
As can be seen in Table 2, Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing humor, but not Aggressiv e and Self-Defeating humor, w ere significantly associated w ith higher reports of subjectiv e happiness. The lack of association betw een Self-defeating humor and w ell-being is consistent w ith prev ious research in Middle East samples (Kazarian & Martin, 2004;Kazarian & Martin, 2006;Taher, Kazarian, & Martin, 2008). The differential correlation of adaptiv e and maladaptiv e humor styles w ith subjectiv e happiness supports the conceptual distinction betw een beneficial and non-beneficial humor styles, as postulated by Martin et al. (2003).  Table 2 also rev eals that, as postulated, higher scores on maternal and paternal ov erall rejection and specific rejection w ere associated w ith low er reports of Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing humor and higher reports of Aggressiv e and Self-Defeating humor. Also, scores of maternal and paternal w armth w ere associated w ith higher reports of Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing humor and low er reports of Aggressiv e and Self-Defeating humor. Taken together, these findings prov ide support for the hypothesis that maternal and paternal w armth during childhood is associated w ith the dev elopment of increased use of adaptiv e humor styles and decreased use of maladaptiv e humor styles later in life.

Mediating Effects of Humor Styles
Finally, mediation analyses w ere conducted to test the hypothesis that humor styles mediate the relationships betw een parental acceptance/rejection and subjectiv e happiness. These analyses w ere conducted using SPSS by means of the bootstrap sampling method dev eloped by Preacher and Hayes (2008)

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The results of the mediation analysis for maternal w armth are presented in Figure 1. A significant mediating effect w as found for Self-enhancing (p < .01), but not for Affiliativ e humor. Higher scores on maternal w armth w ere associated w ith higher Selfenhancing humor (a = .32, p < .001), w hich in turn predicted higher happiness scores (b = .30, p < .001). The direct effect of maternal w armth on subjectiv e happiness w as not significant (c´ = .11, ns), indicating that Self-enhancing humor fully mediates this relationship. Note: * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001 Figure 2 show s the results of the mediation analysis for paternal w armth. Once again, a significant mediating effect w as found for Self-enhancing (p < .01), but not for Affiliativ e humor. Higher scores on paternal w armth w ere associated w ith higher Selfenhancing humor (a = .25, p < .001), w hich in turn predicted higher happiness scores (b = .33, p < .001). I n addition to the indirect effect of paternal w armth on subjectiv e happiness through Self-enhancing humor, a direct effect w as also found (c´ = .17, p < .01), indicating that Self-enhancing humor only partially mediates this relationship.

Self
The results of the mediation analysis for ov erall maternal rejection are presented in Figure 3. Again, a significant mediating effect w as found only for Self-enhancing (p < .01) humor. Higher scores on ov erall maternal rejection w ere associated w ith low er Self-enhancing humor (a = -.25, p < .001), w hich in turn predicted higher happiness scores (b = .29, p < .001). I n addition to this indirect effect, a direct effect w as also found (c´ = -.15, p < .05), indicating that Self-enhancing humor only partially mediates this relationship. Finally, Figure 4 show s the results of the analysis for ov erall paternal rejection. A significant mediating effect w as again found only for Self-enhancing humor (p < .01).
Higher scores on ov erall paternal rejection predicted low er Self-enhancing humor (a = -.20, p < .01), w hich in turn predicted higher subjectiv e w ell-being scores (b = .33, p < .001). The direct effect of paternal rejection on subjectiv e happiness w as also significant (c´ = -.22, p < .001), indicating that Self-enhancing humor only partially mediates this relationship.

Discussion
This study represents the first application of the Arabic Adult PARQ for Mother and  Note: * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001 Ov erall Paternal Rejection

Parental Acceptance/Rejection and Subjectiv e Happiness
PARTheory assumes that parental acceptance/rejection in childhood has major consequences on the behav ioral, cognitiv e, and emotional adjustment of children and for the personality functioning of adults. The finding of significant correlations betw een maternal and paternal w armth and rejection and subjectiv e happiness in the present study not only supports the PARTheory assumption of an association betw een remembered parenting in childhood and adult functioning but also highlights the positiv e effect that parental acceptance might hav e on life-span happiness.
Humor Styles and Subjectiv e Happiness Martin and colleagues (2003) posit that humor styles are distinguished on the basis of their adaptiv e and maladaptiv e functions, Affiliativ e and Self-Enhancing humor being v iew ed as potentially beneficial to psychosocial w ell-being and Aggressiv e and Self-Defeating humor as potentially detrimental. The finding of significant positiv e correlations betw een both of the adaptiv e humor styles and subjectiv e happiness in the present study is consistent w ith prev ious studies on humor styles and psychological w ell-being (Chen & Martin, 2007;Kazarian & Martin, 2004;Kazarian & Martin, 2006;Martin et al., 2003;Saroglou & Scariot, 2002;Taher et al., 2008). The lack of correlation betw een Self-defeating humor and subjectiv e happiness is also consistent w ith prev ious research in the Middle East (Kazarian & Martin, 2004;2006;Taher et al., 2008), although it is inconsistent w ith the finding of negativ e correlations betw een this humor style and w ell-being v ariables in other cultures (Chen & Martin, 2007;Martin et al., 2003;Saroglou & Scariot, 2002). These results support the assumption of differential associations of the four humor styles w ith different w ellbeing v ariables as postulated by Martin et al. (2003). They also add further support to the v iew that the so-called Self-defeating humor style may not be as detrimental to w ell-being among Middle Eastern cultures. Perhaps a tendency to use humor to disparage oneself, deny one's true feelings, and make others laugh at one's ow n expense is not v iew ed as negativ ely in this culture as in some other cultures.

Parental Acceptance/Rejection and Humor Styles
A main purpose of the present study w as to explore the relation betw een perceiv ed parental acceptance and rejection in childhood and use of adaptiv e and maladaptiv e humor in adulthood. Prev ious research on humor styles has tended to focus particularly on their association w ith physical and psychological w ell-being and interpersonal relationships. The present study mov es this research in the direction of exploring potential childhood origins of these humor styles and particularly the potential contribution of early parenting. Ov erall, we found that recalled maternal and paternal acceptance w ere significantly positiv ely correlated w ith both adaptiv e humor styles and negativ ely correlated w ith the maladaptiv e humor styles.
I n addition, ov erall maternal and paternal rejection correlated positiv ely w ith the detrimental humor styles and negativ ely w ith the beneficial styles. Although many of these associations w ere relativ ely w eak, the strongest correlations w ere found w ith self-enhancing humor (in relation to both parental w armth and ov erall rejection) and w ith self-defeating humor (particularly in relation to paternal rejection). These findings suggest a possible link betw een early experiences of parental w armth and rejection and later use of adaptiv e and maladaptiv e humor styles. The findings also support predictions from the PARTheory's personality subtheory and extend the subtheory beyond the sev en personality disposition domai ns assessed by the PAQ.
Martin (2007)  and positiv ely reinforce the child's attempts at humor initiation. I n contrast, the stress and coping hypothesis suggests that children dev elop a sense of humor in the context of a cold, rejecting, and uncongenial family env ironment, in w hich they learn to use humor to cope w ith stress and anxiety, reliev e interpersonal tension among family members, distract otherw ise punitiv e parents by amusing them, and gain attention and approv al from otherw ise unsupportiv e family members.
These tw o models might account for v arious aspects of our finding of differential associations betw een parental w armth and rejection and the four humor styles. I n particular, the modeling/reinforcement hypothesis might explain the positiv e association betw een parental w armth and self-enhancing and (to a somew hat lesser extent) affiliativ e humor. Parents w ho relate to their children in a w arm and accepting manner may model and reinforce these positiv e styles of humor w hich are then adopted by their children. I n contrast, parents w ho relate to their children in a rejecting, indifferent, or hostile manner likely fail to model and reinforce healthy uses of humor, resulting in a low er likelihood of their children dev eloping selfenhancing and affiliativ e humor styles. A similar process might account for the positiv e correlations betw een parental rejection and aggressiv e humor, w ith rejecting parents perhaps modeling and reinforcing aggressiv e types of humor such as sarcasm and aggressiv e teasing. On the other hand, the stress and coping model

Perceived Parental Warmth and Rejection
87 might account for the positiv e associations betw een ov erall rejection (particularly paternal) and self-defeating humor. Children w ho experience these forms of parental rejection may adopt the self-defeating humor style as a method of coping by attempting to make others (including parents) laugh at their ow n expense, and thereby gain some degree of approv al and acceptance in an otherw ise uncongenial family env ironment. These rather speculativ e hypotheses certainly merit further inv estigation.
Humor Styles as Mediators of Parenting and Subjectiv e Happiness Finally, our results also prov ided some su pport for the hypothesis that humor styles might mediate the association betw een early parental acceptance or rejection and later subjectiv e happiness in adulthood. I n particular, w e found that self-enhancing humor consistently mediated the relationships betw een both maternal and paternal w armth and rejection and adult subjectiv e happiness. I ndiv iduals w ho recalled higher lev els of maternal and paternal w armth reported engaging in more selfenhancing humor, w hich in turn predicted higher lev els of subjectiv e happiness. I n contrast, those w ho recalled higher lev els of maternal and paternal rejection reported engaging in low er levels of self-enhancing humor, w hich in turn w as associated w ith lower levels of subjectiv e happiness. Since self-enhancing humor inv olv es the use of humor to cope w ith stress, regulate negativ e emotions, and enhance positiv e emotions, it is not surprising that this style seems to be particularly important as a mediator in the prediction of happiness. As noted in the prev ious section, indiv iduals may dev elop particular styles of humor during childhood in the context of parental w armth and rejection, and these styles of humor may in turn contribute to their lev el of happiness and other aspects of w ell-being later in life.
These mediator findings are consistent w ith other recent research reporting similar mediating effects of humor styles on w ell-being. Dozois, Martin, and Bieling (2009) found that three of the four humor styles mediated the relationships betw een sev eral early maladaptiv e schemas (w hich are assumed to dev elop in the context of parent-child relationships) and depression in early adulthood. Similarly, Kuiper and McHale (2009) found that affiliativ e and self-defeating humor mediated the relationship betw een positiv e and negativ e self-ev aluativ e standards (based on a self-schema model of emotion) and measures of psychological w ell-being, including depression and social self-esteem. Taken together, these studies suggest that positiv e and negativ e humor styles may play an important role in the link betw een the indiv idual's core self concept, dev eloping in the context of early parenting experiences, and later w ell-being. I ndiv iduals w ho experience w arm and accepting parenting and dev elop more positiv e self-standards and adaptiv e self-schemas may consequently dev elop more beneficial and less detrimental humor styles, w hich in turn may further enhance social relationships, increasing self-esteem and general w ell-being. I n contrast, early experiences of more rejecting parenting and dev elopment of more self-critical and maladaptiv e core schemas may lead to dev elopment of more detrimental and less adaptiv e humor styles, w hich in turn result in less positiv e relationships, increased depression, and low er happiness, self -esteem, and w ell-being. Ov erall, then, these findings contribute to a grow ing body of ev idence suggesting that humor styles may be one pathw ay by w hich early parenting experiences and self-concept dev elopment may influence later w ellbeing.

Conclusions, Limitations and Future Research Directions
To summarize our key findings, maternal and paternal w armth and rejection w ere differentially associated w ith use of adaptiv e and maladaptiv e humor styles and subjectiv e happiness, and the association betw een maternal and paternal w armth and rejection and subjectiv e happiness w as mediated by self-enhancing humor.
I mportant limitations of this study are the cross-sectional correlational design and the use of retrospectiv e measures of parent-child relationships. Participants' recollections of parental w armth and rejection could hav e been biased by their current lev els of happiness, resulting in significant correlations betw een these v ariables despite no actual causal connection. Similarly, rather than humor styles influencing subjectiv e happiness, it is possible that higher lev els of subjectiv e happiness cause people to engage in more positiv e and less negativ e styles of humor. These possible alternativ e explanations also apply to the results of our mediator analyses. Giv en the crosssectional nature of our study, w e cannot rule out that, for example, happiness lev els or humor styles influence parental w armth or rejection, or that a third v ariable is responsible for determining both parental behav ior and humor styles. Future research using a longitudinal design might be useful in disentangling some of these relationships. While the stress and coping and modeling/reinforcement formulations are possible explanations for the use of humor styles in the context of congenial and non-congenial parental env ironments, other potential antecedents and mediators need future consideration w ith child, parent, and non -student adult populations and measures supplementary to the self-report methodology used in the present study.