How am I so bored? : An empirical examination of boredom types, precursors, and coping strategies

Abstract

Although boredom is an omnipresent emotion, research on boredom has just increased recently. A study by Goetz et al. (2014) addressed the specific nature of boredom experiences and proposed the differentiation of five types of boredom on the basis of valence and arousal dimensions. The goal of the present study was to investigate the interrelationship between these different types of boredom with precursors of boredom and boredom-related coping strategies. As boredom represents a multi-determined emotion, it is critical to investigate this emotion as it occurs in real-life settings, as such, data was assessed via experience sampling. Over a period of two weeks, a total of 71 university students responded to seven questionnaires per day. Constructs assessed were a) intensity of boredom, b) valence and arousal c) precursors to current boredom experiences within an achievement situation and d) coping strategies associated with current boredom experiences. By latent profile analysis, the proposed differentiation of five types of boredom could be replicated. Significant mean level differences were observed between the boredom types on lack of meaning, feeling overchallenged, and teacher dislike, with results showing these precursors to correspond most strongly with reactant boredom. Further results indicated significant mean level differences showing behavioral-approach strategies to be relatively infrequent when apathetic boredom was experienced, and cognitive-avoidance to be slightly related to reactant boredom. The findings suggest that specific knowledge of the situational context can help to determine the nature of boredom experienced, and to a lesser extent, how to best cope with it.