Stress Management and Resilience as a Psychological Resource in Case of Gelotophobia in the Context of Students’ Psychological Health

In the article the manifestation of gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at) in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd-year students aged 17–22 years is described. The aim of the present study was to in-vestigate the manifestation of the fear of being laughed at and its influence on the components of students’ psychological health as a factor of predisposition to mental health disorders. According to this aim, three tasks were set. The first task was to identify the differences in gelotophobia depending on the duration of education and gender. The second task was to establish a link between personality traits and the level of gelotophobia. The third task was to observe the relationship between components of psychological health (resilience, stress management) and the level of gelotophobia. To identify the level of fear of being laughed at in a sample of students, we set the scales of the "GELOPH-15" questionnaire and specified them as low, moderate and high gelotophobia scores. Then, using the frequency analysis of students’ answers to this questionnaire, we found out that most responses indicated a moderate level of gelotophobia (71%), only 16% of answers indicate a low level, and 10% of answers present a high level of fear of being laughed at. Also 3% of students did not answer this ques-tionnaire. The results of this study demonstrated that gelotophobia is more typical for female than for male students. The data also showed that the manifestation of gelotophobia didn’t correlate to the duration of education. A comparative analysis using the Student's t-test in the female and male subgroups identified that young women in socially significant cases could hardly tolerate negative situations. Young men, on the other hand, were able to cope with stressful situations if they had internal balance. Using the Spearman rank test, a correlation analysis was performed between the scales of the characterological questionnaire and the level of gelotophobia. A relationship with the total score of gelotophobia, as well as with the average and low score of gelotophobia was found. No correlation with a high score of gelotophobia was found. The analysis of the results obtained showed that resilience and its components (involvement, control and risk acceptance) helps to reduce stress and the influ-ence of negative factors that cause fear in socially significant situations. The results corre-spond to the above stated aims and tasks. Further work in this direction will make it possible to develop a program of psychological support for students.