Academic boredom(s): a person-centered investigation

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Emotion Research

Background:

• Research on emotions often treats them as singular constructs.
• Academic boredom, however, presents a unique case for investigation.
• Understanding the multifaceted nature of boredom is crucial for educational contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether academic boredom is a singular concept or comprises multiple facets.
• To identify the antecedents and triggers of different types of academic boredom.
• To examine the progression of academic boredom over time, considering external factors like the pandemic.

Main Methods:

• Employed person-centered models to analyze university students' achievement emotions.
• Utilized data from dispositional learning analytics applications.
• Investigated the influence of student learning aptitudes (mindsets, beliefs, motivation, engagement) and demographics.

Main Results:

• Empirical evidence supports the existence of multiple types of academic boredom.
• Control and value constructs were identified as proximal antecedents of boredom.
• Epistemic boredom emerged as a distal antecedent, with variations across boredom types.

Conclusions:

• Academic boredom is best understood as a multifaceted construct, not a singular emotion.
• Control and value significantly predict boredom, but their relationship differs based on boredom type.
• Further research is needed to explore the dynamic interplay of antecedents and boredom facets.