Researchers have noted that positive maternal relationships correlate with laughter in children. If humor as a coping mechanism is learned through modeling, then the lack of parental attachments in institutionalized children affects the use of humor as a coping skill. We hypothesized that institutionalized children should experience fewer humor instances than noninstitutionalized preschoolers. Also, preschoolers should have more frequent instances of the silliness/clowning style. This study compared laughing and smiling and humor styles of 18 (2–6-year-old) institutionalized Romanian children with those of 15 (2–5-year-old) American preschool children. Institutionalized children showed significantly fewer instances of humor and of silliness/clowning than the preschoolers. The results support the theory that humor as a coping skill is learned through modeling

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