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    The Early Humor Survey (EHS): a reliable parent-report measure of humor development for 1- to 47-month-olds

    Hoicka, Elena, Soy Telli, Burcu, Prouten, Eloise, Leckie, George, Browne, William J, Mireault, Gina and Fox, Claire ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4329-4056 (2022) The Early Humor Survey (EHS): a reliable parent-report measure of humor development for 1- to 47-month-olds. Behavior Research Methods, 54 (4). pp. 1928-1953. ISSN 1554-351X

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    Abstract

    We created a 20-item parent-report measure of humor development from 1 to 47 months: the Early Humor Survey (EHS). We developed the EHS with Study 1 (N = 219) using Exploratory Factor Analysis, demonstrating the EHS works with 1- to 47-month-olds with excellent reliability and a strong correlation with age, showing its developmental trajectory. We replicated the EHS with Study 2 (N = 587), revealing a 1-factor structure, showing excellent reliability, and replicating a strong correlation with age. Study 3 (N = 84) found the EHS correlated with a humor experiment, however it no longer correlated once age was accounted for, suggesting low convergent validity. Subsamples of parents from Studies 2 and 3 showed excellent inter-observer reliability between both parents, and good longitudinal stability after 6 months. Combining participants from all Studies, we found the EHS is reliable across countries (Australia, United Kingdom, United States), parent education levels, and children’s age groups. We charted expected humor development by age (in months), and the expected proportion of children who would appreciate each humor type by age (in months). Finally, we found no demographic differences (e.g., country: Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States; parents’ education) in humor when pooling all data. The EHS is a valuable tool that will allow researchers to understand how humor: (1) emerges; and (2) affects other aspects of life, e.g., making friends, coping with stress, and creativity. The EHS is helpful for parents, early years educators, and children’s media, as it systematically charts early humor development.

    Item Type: Article
    Peer-reviewed: Yes
    Date Deposited: 09 Nov 2021 10:31
    Publisher: Springer (part of Springer Nature)
    Additional Information: This is an Open Access article published by Springer in Behavior Research Methods, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
    Divisions: Faculties > Health and Education
    Research Centres > Education and Social Research Institute
    Subject terms: humor, humour, joke, preschool, survey, toddler, Social Sciences, Psychology, Mathematical, Psychology, Experimental, Psychology, Humor, Joke, Preschool, Toddler, Survey, INFANT HUMOR, DEVELOPING-CHILDREN, JOKE, PERCEPTION, LAUGHTER, QUESTIONNAIRE, TEMPERAMENT, CONSTRUCTION, VALIDATION, INVENTORY, Humans, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Reproducibility of Results, Parents, Child, Canada, United States, Surveys and Questionnaires, Humor, Joke, Preschool, Survey, Toddler, Canada, Child, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Humans, Parents, Reproducibility of Results, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Experimental Psychology
    URI: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/628685
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01704-4
    ISSN 1554-351X
    e-ISSN 1554-3528

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