Boredom Proneness and Self-Control as Unique Risk Factors in Achievement Settings.

Jhotisha Mugon,James Boylan,James Danckert

doi:10.3390/ijerph17239116

Jhotisha Mugon, James Boylan + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17239116

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Abstract

The state of boredom arises when we have the desire to be engaged in goal pursuit, but for whatever reason we cannot fulfil that desire. Boredom proneness is characterized by both frequent and intense feelings of boredom and is an enduring individual difference trait associated with a raft of negative outcomes. There has been some work in educational settings, but relatively little is known about the consequences of boredom proneness for learning. Here we explored the unique contributions of boredom proneness, self-control and self-esteem to undergraduate self-reported higher grade point average (GPA). Within educational settings, prior research has shown self-control and self-esteem to be associated with better academic performance. In contrast, boredom proneness is associated with lower levels of self-control and self-esteem. Our analyses replicate those previous findings showing that self-control acts as a positive predictor of GPA. Importantly, we further demonstrated, for the first time, that boredom proneness has a unique contribution to GPA over and above the contribution of self-control, such that as boredom proneness increases, GPA decreases. We discuss potential mechanisms through which boredom proneness may influence academic performance.

Highlights

Boredom is a ubiquitous human experience in which individuals are motivated to engage with their environment but fail to successfully do so [1,2]
The results suggest that both boredom proneness and self-control make unique contributions to grade point average (GPA) in that boredom proneness was negatively associated with GPA, while self-control was positively associated with GPA
This study explored the unique contributions of boredom proneness, self-esteem, and self-control to GPA within a university convenience sample

Summary

Introduction

Boredom is a ubiquitous human experience in which individuals are motivated to engage with their environment but fail to successfully do so [1,2]. The bored individual is motivated to engage, they are not necessarily motivated to engage with their immediate environment. A student may not be motivated to engage in their current learning environment, while being simultaneously highly motivated to engage in some other activity that they deem to be a more satisfying alternative. The current environment can be seen as problematic since it is the impediment to successful engagement in alternatives. The state of boredom signals that what we are doing now is failing to satisfy our needs and goals in some important way, prompting us to explore alternative options for engagement. Previous research has demonstrated that monotony, lapses of attention, a lack of meaning, an unwillingness to engage in the task, subjective effort and agency are among the many situational variables that can lead to boredom [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]

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