Job boredom as an antecedent of four states of mental health: life satisfaction, positive functioning, anxiety, and depression symptoms among young employees - a latent change score approach.

BACKGROUND: Job boredom has been generally associated with poorer self-rated health but the evidence is mainly cross-sectional and there is a lack of a holistic mental health approach. We examined the temporal relationships between job boredom and mental health indicators of life satisfaction, positive functioning, anxiety, and depression symptoms. METHODS: We analyzed a two-wave postal survey data of adults aged 23 to 34 that was collected from the Finnish working population between 2021 and 2022 (n = 513). Latent change score modelling was used to estimate the effects of prior levels of job boredom on subsequent changes in mental health indicators, and of prior levels of mental health indicators on subsequent changes in job boredom. RESULTS: Job boredom was associated with subsequent decreases in life satisfaction and positive functioning and increases in anxiety and depression symptoms. Of these associations, job boredom was more strongly associated with changes in positive functioning and anxiety symptoms than with changes in life satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Our two-wave study suggests that job boredom, a motivational state of ill-being in the work domain, spills over into general mental health by decreasing life satisfaction and positive functioning and increasing anxiety and depression symptoms. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the potential detrimental effects of job boredom and its nomological network. From a practical perspective, workplaces are adviced to improve working conditions that mitigate job boredom and thus promote employees' mental health.

Should Patients' Boredom in Locked Inpatient Psychiatric Units Be Considered Iatrogenic Harm?

Patients often report experiencing boredom during inpatient psychiatry stays. Because patients' vulnerabilities and conditions can be exacerbated when they feel bored, this article considers ethical dimensions of inpatient units' designs that limit patients' autonomy or access to activities or interactions with others. This commentary on a case also considers whether and how boredom should be considered an iatrogenic harm and influence discharge planning.

Validation of a German version of the Boredom Proneness Scale and the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale.

The scientific interest in boredom is growing over the past decades. Boredom has not only been linked to symptoms of psychopathology, but also shows a remarkable effect on individual behavior under healthy conditions. Current characterizations of boredom in humans mostly rely on self-report assessments which proved to faithfully reflect boredom in a vast range of experimental environments. Two of the most commonly used and prominent self-report scales in order to assess boredom are the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale (MSBS) and the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS). Here, we present the German translations of both questionnaires and their validation. We obtained and analyzed psychometric data from more than 800 healthy individuals. We find that the German MSBS and BPS show vast congruence with their originals in respect to item statistics, internal reliability and validity. In particular, we find remarkable associations of state boredom and trait boredom with indicators of mental burden. Testing the factor structure of both questionnaires, we find supporting evidence for a 5-factor model of the MSBS, whereas the BPS in line with its original shows an irregular, inconsistent factor structure. Thus, we validate the German versions of MSBS and BPS and set a starting point for further studies of boredom in German-speaking collectives.

Disentangling boredom from depression using the phenomenology and content of involuntary autobiographical memories.

Recurrent involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are memories retrieved unintentionally and repetitively. We examined whether the phenomenology and content of recurrent IAMs could differentiate boredom and depression, both of which are characterized by affective dysregulation and spontaneous thought. Participants (n = 2484) described their most frequent IAM and rated its phenomenological properties (e.g., valence). Structural topic modeling, a method of unsupervised machine learning, identified coherent content within the described memories. Boredom proneness was positively correlated with depressive symptoms, and both boredom proneness and depressive symptoms were correlated with more negative recurrent IAMs. Boredom proneness predicted less vivid recurrent IAMs, whereas depressive symptoms predicted more vivid, negative, and emotionally intense ones. Memory content also diverged: topics such as relationship conflicts were positively predicted by depressive symptoms, but negatively predicted by boredom proneness. Phenomenology and content in recurrent IAMs can effectively disambiguate boredom proneness from depressive symptoms in a large sample of undergraduate students from a racially diverse university.

Trait Boredom as a Lack of Agency: A Theoretical Model and a New Assessment Tool.

Trait boredom plays a significant role in well-being. However, this construct suffers from conceptual ambiguity and measurement problems. The aim of this study was to propose a comprehensive theory and a strong assessment tool to address these limitations. We defined trait boredom as the frequent experience of state boredom resulting from a chronic lack of agency. We developed a six-item self-report scale of the tendency to often experience boredom. Results confirmed a uni-dimensional scale with strong psychometric properties, including adequate internal consistency (ω = .84-.93), interindividual stability (69.04% of variance accounted by a trait factor), and acceptable model fit (CFI = .977-.998, TLI = .962-.997, RMSEA = .025-.090, SRMR = .014-.029). Results confirmed the validity of the scale by showing its associations with related measures. Our findings provide clarity on trait boredom and a strong, new measure to be used in future work.

Exploring EEG resting state as a function of boredom proneness in pre-adolescents and adolescents.

Boredom is a prominent experience commonly reported in school settings and associated with poor academic achievement. Little is known, however, about the age-related trajectory of boredom. Here we examined self-reported ratings of boredom in a cross-sectional sample of 8 to 15-year olds (n = 185) as a function of resting state EEG. Results indicated that reports of boredom in school rose as a function of age. Resting state EEG showed a decrease in theta power with age perhaps reflective of increased control. While no effects were evident in beta and alpha bands, we did observe an interaction between boredom and age for frontal asymmetry such that for those higher in boredom, the asymmetry increased with age. Finally, for theta to beta ratios there were main effects of age (i.e., a decrease in theta/beta ratio with age) and boredom such that those higher in boredom had higher theta/beta ratios over frontal and central brain areas. The results are discussed in the context of prior work on school-related boredom and provide several important avenues for further research.

EFL learners' boredom coping strategies: the role of teacher-student rapport and support.

BACKGROUND: A significant issue in the language education context is examining the coping strategies that learners apply to combat boredom in the class environment. As a significant contextual element affecting different dimensions of learners' acquisition, teacher support in general education has been extensively studied but widely neglected in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. Also, having a relationship with a teacher can help a learner cope better with school challenges as the teacher can act as a reference for the learner. METHODS: To this end, 268 EFL learners participated to fill out the three scales namely, Teacher Support, Teacher-Student Rapport (T-SR), and learners' Boredom Coping Strategies (BCS). RESULTS: Using multiple regressions, the results revealed that there are constructive links between these concepts as they affect learners' BCS, and both T-SR and teacher support were predictors of learners' BCS while the better predictor was teacher support. CONCLUSIONS: As a result, it can be assumed that these two elements can enhance the students' BCS in language acquisition which ends in declining boredom. Additionally, this research may have further implications for the team members of language teaching in academic environments.

High state boredom vastly affects psychiatric inpatients and predicts their treatment duration.

Boredom is a ubiquitous, aversive human experience typically elicited by low information and monotony. Boredom can occur either as a transient mental state that prompts individuals to adapt their behavior to avoid monotony or as a temporally stable trait, describing a chronic susceptibility to feeling bored. Increased trait boredom was found to correlate with various psychopathologies and indicators of mental burden. However, the role of state boredom in psychopathological conditions and its implications for psychiatric treatment remain elusive. Here, we address this issue by investigating state boredom and trait boredom in a cohort of psychiatric inpatients and a healthy control cohort. We find that in both groups, state boredom, even more than trait boredom, shows remarkable associations with psychopathology. In the inpatient group, state boredom is implicated broadly in multiple mental disorders and shows an association with treatment in closed psychiatric wards. Furthermore, through statistical modeling, we find that high-state boredom during inpatient therapy is predictive of a longer therapy duration. Thus, we show that state boredom constitutes an indicator of mild and severe psychopathology in different mental disorders, affecting the outcome of psychiatric patients. Potential therapeutic interventions are discussed, aiming to enhance information flow in the brain in order to alleviate boredom in clinical settings.

Modeling fashion as an emergent collective behavior of bored individuals.

Boredom is an aversive mental state that is typically evoked by monotony and drives individuals to seek novel information. Despite this effect on individual behavior, the consequences of boredom for collective behavior remain elusive. Here, we introduce an agent-based model of collective fashion behavior in which simplified agents interact randomly and repeatedly choose alternatives from a circular space of color variants. Agents are endowed with a memory of past experiences and a boredom parameter, promoting avoidance of monotony. Simulating collective color trends with this model captures aspects of real trends observed in fashion magazines. We manipulate the two parameters and observe that the boredom parameter is essential for perpetuating fashion dynamics in our model. Furthermore, highly bored agents lead future population trends, when acting coherently or being highly popular. Taken together, our study illustrates that highly bored individuals can guide collective dynamics of a population to continuously explore different variants of behavior.

The role of boredom proneness and self-control in the association between anxiety and smartphone addiction among college students: a multiple mediation model.

Background: Smartphone addiction has been found to be a widespread public health issue, especially among youth. Previous studies reported a significant association between anxiety and smartphone addiction, but the underlying mechanism in this relationship is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating roles of boredom proneness and self-control in the relationship between anxiety and smartphone addiction. Methods: Self-reported measures of anxiety, boredom proneness, self-control and smartphone addiction were administered to 1,526 Chinese college students. Results: Smartphone addiction scores varied between 10 and 60 with an average of 30.89 ± 10.57 points. Anxiety had a direct and positive effect on smartphone addiction (effect = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.11-0.25), and an indirect effect on smartphone addiction through boredom proneness (effect = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.06-0.15) and self-control (effect = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.13-0.20). Boredom proneness and self-control sequentially mediated the relationship between anxiety and smartphone addiction (effect = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.10-0.15). Conclusion: Anxiety is positively associated with smartphone addiction, and boredom proneness and self-control are important mediators in this relationship. Strengthening self-control and mitigating boredom could prevent smartphone addiction in anxious college students.

Increased relaxation, less boredom, and a faster passage of time during a period of silence in the forest.

INTRODUCTION: There is growing evidence of the beneficial effects of exposure to nature on health and well-being. Time spent in nature can decrease stress, anxiety, depression, and improve mood. In the present study, we compared the experience of a short period of silence in the natural environment of a forest with the same amount of silence in a seminar room. METHODS: We applied an intra-subject design with two 6:30-min sessions of silence in two different environments (forest, seminar room). The participants (n=41) were assigned to four groups. Two groups started with the indoor condition and two groups with the outdoor condition. After 1 week, the two groups were exposed to the other condition. Participants filled out personality-trait scales on meaning in life and belief in oneness with the world, as well as state scales assessing emotional reactions, relaxation, boredom, and the subjective sense of self, time, and space. RESULTS: Participants felt significantly more relaxed and less bored in the forest compared to indoors. They experienced time less intensely, judging it to pass faster and to last shorter in the forest. Regarding trait variables, the higher the search for meaning, the higher oneness beliefs in participants. The higher oneness beliefs, the more positive participants felt during silence in the forest. DISCUSSION: Interest in nature-assisted therapy is increasing in the healthcare sector. Exposure to silence in the natural setting of a forest could prove to be an effective complement to interventions applied in nature-assisted therapy, such as forest therapy.

The feeling of the passage of time against the time of the external clock.

When people say that time is passing faster or slower, they are referring to the clock time. What exactly is the role of this reference to clock time in the awareness of the passage of time? Three experiments were conducted to examine this question. In Experiment 1, participants performed an easy and a difficult task in a condition with or without an external clock. In Experiment 2, the external clock was introduced after several trials of the easy task performed by the same participants. In Experiment 3, the speed of the clock hands was manipulated. Eye movements towards the clock were recorded by an eye tracker. The results showed that time was judged to pass faster with the external clock, thus reducing the distortion of the sense of time. Indeed, participants noticed that time passed faster than they initially thought. However, our results also showed that this was an occasional and short-lived adjustment of subjective time to objective time, with a greater acceleration in the presence of the fast clock. Indeed, the clock quickly lost its effect after a few trials, the feeling of the passage remaining based on the emotion felt, i.e., the boredom felt in the easy task. Our experiments thus showed that the feeling of the passage of time is primarily grounded in the emotional affect experienced (Embodiment), and that knowledge of clock time had only a small and transient corrective effect.

Experiences of Older Adults During COVID-19: Loss, Boredom, Uncertainty, Worry, and Resilience.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and resulting instructions to stay home and social distance enhanced concerns of the impact of social isolation on the physical and mental well-being of older adults. Eighteen community-dwelling older adults participated in interviews describing their experiences early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants experienced loss of activities, routines, and social connection, and feelings of worry and uncertainty. Nevertheless, participants were hopeful about the future and demonstrated resilience in overcoming boredom as they became intentional in finding new activities and using technology to maintain connection with others. Older adults may need support in such situations to manage boredom and uncertainty and avoid social isolation. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 49(6), 27-32.].

Using Virtual Reality to Bring Restorative Environments to Employees: An Online Pilot Study.

Employees face many demands throughout the workday. Participating in activities can help employees recover from the pressures of work, and physical activity and time spent in nature are among the most beneficial. Simulations of nature offer some of the benefits of actual contact with nature and can address some of the barriers to exercising outdoors that some employees may face. In this pilot study, we examine the influence of physical activity and virtual or actual nature contact on affect, boredom, and satisfaction when experienced during a break from a demanding work task. Twenty-five employed adults participated in an online study in which they completed a problem-solving task, completed a twenty-minute break, and then completed another session of the problem-solving task. During the break, participants were randomized to either a control condition, a physical activity and low-fidelity virtual nature contact condition, a physical activity and high-fidelity virtual nature contact condition, or a physical activity and actual nature contact condition. An examination of the means of affect, boredom, and satisfaction before, during, and after the break revealed that those in high-fidelity virtual nature and actual nature contact conditions seemed to report more positive well-being during the break. The results highlight that to help employees recover from work demands, it could be important to take breaks, be physically active, and have contact with nature, which should be simulated in high fidelity if actual nature contact cannot be achieved.

Boredom Susceptibility and Quit Smoking: The Role of Anxiety Symptoms.

Boredom is one of the main reported motives for smoking. However, scarce research has examined the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence achievement in treatment-seeking smokers. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating effect of anxiety symptoms in the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence at the end of a smoking cessation treatment. The sample was composed of 481 Spanish smokers who received a cognitive-behavioral treatment to quit (Mage= 45.51, SD = 11.16; 60.6% female). The Boredom Susceptibility subscale of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form-V and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were used. Pearson correlations and mediation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between the study variables. Boredom susceptibility was significantly and positively correlated to anxiety symptoms, but not to abstinence. Anxiety symptoms were significantly and negatively correlated to abstinence. A significant indirect effect of boredom susceptibility on abstinence at the end of treatment through anxiety symptoms was found. There was no direct relation between boredom susceptibility and abstinence. These findings extend previous literature by showing that higher boredom susceptibility is associated with less likelihood to be abstinent at the end of the treatment through higher anxiety symptoms. These results highlight the relevance of considering the inclusion of boredom and anxiety management techniques in smoking cessation interventions.

In search of boredom: beyond a functional account.

Boredom has been characterized as a crisis of meaning, a failure of attention, and a call to action. Yet as a self-regulatory signal writ-large, we are still left with the question of what makes any given boredom episode meaningless, disengaging, or a prompt to act. We propose that boredom is an affective signal that we have deviated from an optimal ('Goldilocks') zone of cognitive engagement. Such deviations may be due to a perceived lack of meaning, arise as a consequence of struggles we are experiencing in attending to a task, or be interpreted as a blunt call to find something different to engage with. Thus, the key to understanding boredom lies in its role in keeping us cognitively engaged.

Children's feelings in isolation rooms during COVID-19 hospitalization.

The treatment given to children who have been confirmed positive for COVID-19 and are showing symptoms involves isolation, which consequently is an unpleasant experience for pediatric patients. In isolation rooms, children reported a "rollercoaster" of feelings due to being separated from their families and familiar surroundings. This study examines children's emotions while being hospitalized in isolation rooms due to COVID-19. The study follows a descriptive qualitative design. Online interviews were carried out and involved 10 children who had been confirmed positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized in two big cities in Sumatra. Four themes emerged from the data: i) children's emotional conditions after finding out they had positive COVID-19 test results; ii) boredom and inconvenience during isolation; iii) support from the children's peer; and iv) happy responses to receiving negative swab results and being allowed to go home. These themes describe the children's adaptation process to isolation based on the feelings they expressed during the interviews. This study suggests that, in order to improve their facilities, hospitals should support children's activities during isolation and nurses should improve their therapeutic communication with pediatric patients.

Predicting the stalking of celebrities from measures of persistent pursuit and threat directed toward celebrities, sensation seeking and celebrity worship.

The stalking of celebrities is a serious issue for thousands of celebrities worldwide who are occasionally confronted by fans who merit the label "fanatic." We administered measures of obnoxious celebrity stalking, celebrity worship, persistent pursuit of celebrities, threat directed toward celebrities, boredom susceptibility, disinhibition, experience seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, relationship styles, and anger to 596 college students from the U.S.A. We developed a model consisting of all but the latter five measures that successfully predicted actual obnoxious stalking behaviors of celebrities. Our results partially replicate earlier research and presents some new findings. Individuals who have personal thoughts about their favorite celebrity frequently, feel compelled to learn more about them, pursue them consistently, threatened to harm them and were prone to boredom were more likely to engage in celebrity stalking. Controlling for these predictors, individuals who admire their favorite celebrity almost exclusively because of their ability to entertain were less likely to engage in celebrity stalking.

Sexual boredom and sexual desire in long-term relationships: a latent profile analysis.

BACKGROUND: Research suggests a general link between sexual boredom and sexual desire, but its understanding is currently very limited. AIM: To identify distinct (latent) groups of women and men in long-term relationships based on their reported levels of sexual boredom and sexual desire. METHODS: Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted in an online sample of 1223 Portuguese participants aged 18 and 66 years (mean ± SD, 32.75 ± 6.11), using indicators of sexual boredom and partner-related, attractive other-related, and solitary sexual desire to categorize participants. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was carried out to explore predictors and correlates of the latent profiles. OUTCOMES: Sexual boredom was assessed by the Sexual Boredom Scale, while sexual desire was measured with the Sexual Desire Inventory. RESULTS: As compared with women, men reported higher levels of sexual boredom and sexual desire. LPA indicated 3 profiles in women and 2 profiles in men. Among women, P1 was characterized by above-average sexual boredom, below-average partner- and attractive other-related sexual desire, and very low solitary sexual desire; P2 by below-average sexual boredom, attractive other-related sexual desire, and solitary sexual desire and above-average partner-related sexual desire; and P3 by above-average sexual boredom, attractive other-related sexual desire, and solitary sexual desire and below-average partner-related sexual desire. In men, P1 was characterized by high sexual boredom, above-average partner-related sexual desire, and high attractive other-related and solitary sexual desire and P2 by below-average sexual boredom and above-average partner-related, attractive other-related, and solitary sexual desire. The latent profiles did not differ according to relationship duration. Overall, the sole consistent correlate of the latent categorization was sexual satisfaction. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: In women, above-average levels of sexual boredom were linked to below-average levels of partner-related desire, which suggests likely benefits of helping the couple to minimize or cope better with their sexual routines. In men, participants in the 2 profiles did not differ in partner-related sexual desire, suggesting that clinical interventions dealing with male sexual boredom should investigate factors beyond the current relationship. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: This study explored different facets of sexual desire and used LPA, rendering advantages over previous research. The male sample has lower statistical power than the female sample. CONCLUSION: Patterns of sexual boredom and sexual desire among individuals in long-term monogamous relationships are distinct and consistently related to sexual satisfaction in women and men and to relationship satisfaction among only women, which have important clinical ramifications.

The Mediatory Role of the Boredom and Loneliness Dimensions in the Development of Problematic Internet Use.

In recent years, there has been a gradual digitalization of our society, resulting in intensified technology use for daily life activities, including the emergence of problematic Internet use (PIU). Few studies specifically addressed the boredom and loneliness dimensions in mediating the association between depression, anxiety, and stress levels and the onset of PIU. A nationwide population-based cross-sectional case-control study was carried out by recruiting a sample of Italian young people (aged 18-35). Only 1643 participants were selected for the analyses based on the age and the presence versus absence of PIU. Participants were mainly females (68.7%), with a mean age of 21.8 (SD = 1.7). Non-PIU individuals had significantly stable relationships (p = 0.012), siblings (p = 0.044) and lived with their family (p = 0.010), compared to PIU. PIU individuals displayed significantly higher depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as higher loneliness and boredom levels (all p < 0.001), compared to non-PIU. Depressive symptomatology predicted PIU and that their interaction is positively double mediated by boredom and loneliness (ß = 0.3829 (0.0245), 95%CI = 0.3349-0.4309). Our findings suggested that boredom and loneliness dimensions could act as mediators in the association between depressive symptomatology and the likelihood of PIU onset and maintenance.