Abstract:

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between university students' levels of coping with humor and their perceived stress levels. As a data collection tool in the research, the Coping Humor Scale (CHS)) and The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used. The participants of the research are N=135 university students studying at Dumlupınar University Faculty of Sport Sciences. As a result of the reliability analyzes of the scales used, the Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the Coping with Humor Scale was calculated as.52 and the Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the Perceived Stress Scale was calculated as .77. Correlation analyses were performed in order to answer the research question “Is there a significant relationship between the levels of coping with humor and perceived stress levels of the students studying at the Faculty of Sport Sciences?” Pearson correlation coefficients were examined in order to determine whether there is a relationship between the students' total scores on the scale of coping with humor and the perceived stress scale. As a result of the research; there is a significant negative correlation between students' levels of coping with humor and their perceived stress levels, r= -0.196, p<0.05. According that as the level of coping with humor increases, perceived stress decreases. Then, linear regression analysis was applied to get an answer to the research question “Is perceived stress a significant predictor of the level of coping with humor among the students of the faculty of sports sciences?” Analysis results showed that the perceived stress level is a significant negative predictor of students' coping with humor R=0.196 , R2=.039, F(1.133)=5.341, p<0.05. It' show that 3.9% of the total variance in coping with humor is explained by the students' perceived stress levels ᵦ=-0.125. When the perceived stress level rises to 1, the level of coping with humor decreases by 0.12, t(133)=-2.31, p<0.05. As a result, it can be thought that as the skills of coping with humor increase, the stress levels perceived by the students in their daily lives decrease, thus helping the students to be less negatively affected by stressful situations.

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