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Humorous peer play and social understanding in childhood
Amy Louise Paine1, Salim Hashmi2, Elian Fink3
1Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. paineal@cardiff.ac.uk.
Communications Psychology
|May 12, 2025
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Humor is vital for early social interactions, aiding social understanding and relationships.
- Limited research exists on humor production in peer play and social understanding in middle childhood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between children's humor production during peer play and their social understanding skills.
- To test the prediction that humor use in play correlates with theory of mind abilities in children aged 5-7.
Main Methods:
- Observational coding of humor production in 130 UK children (aged 5-7) during peer play.
- Assessment of social understanding using a battery of tests.
- Multilevel modeling to analyze humor production variance and associations with social cognition.
Main Results:
- Play partner effects explained 42.8% of the variance in children's humor production.
- Children's spontaneous mental state attributions were associated with humor production, controlling for covariates.
- Peer interactions and humor are linked to socio-cognitive development.
Conclusions:
- Humor production during peer play is significantly associated with children's social understanding abilities.
- Playful exchanges involving humor reflect and influence the development of socio-cognitive competencies in children.
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