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Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, studies have demonstrated increases in boredom and its negative impact on mental health. This cross-sectional study examines state and trait boredom at four different points of the pandemic using an online sample of participants from the United States (n = 783). The...

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Autores principales: Weiss, Emily R., Todman, McWelling, Maple, Emily, Bunn, Rebecca R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9405470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36004869
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12080298
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author Weiss, Emily R.
Todman, McWelling
Maple, Emily
Bunn, Rebecca R.
author_facet Weiss, Emily R.
Todman, McWelling
Maple, Emily
Bunn, Rebecca R.
author_sort Weiss, Emily R.
collection PubMed
description Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, studies have demonstrated increases in boredom and its negative impact on mental health. This cross-sectional study examines state and trait boredom at four different points of the pandemic using an online sample of participants from the United States (n = 783). The results showed significant increases in boredom proneness, state boredom, substance use, loneliness, and distress. Boredom was associated with increases in each of these variables and a greater likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19. Moreover, the increases in distress, loneliness, and substance use became non-significant when controlling for boredom. Boredom proneness remained associated with all adverse outcomes when accounting for state boredom. In contrast, the relationships between state boredom and most adverse outcomes lost significance when controlling for boredom proneness, and state boredom was positively associated with increased hope for the future. Overall, the results suggest that high boredom proneness is an important vulnerability factor for poor psychological health and risky behaviors during the pandemic. However, high levels of recent state boredom, independent of boredom proneness, do not predict similarly negative outcomes. State boredom may indicate the extent to which one remains hopeful that circumstances will improve without resorting to risky, potentially maladaptive coping strategies.
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spelling pubmed-94054702022-08-26 Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19 Weiss, Emily R. Todman, McWelling Maple, Emily Bunn, Rebecca R. Behav Sci (Basel) Article Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, studies have demonstrated increases in boredom and its negative impact on mental health. This cross-sectional study examines state and trait boredom at four different points of the pandemic using an online sample of participants from the United States (n = 783). The results showed significant increases in boredom proneness, state boredom, substance use, loneliness, and distress. Boredom was associated with increases in each of these variables and a greater likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19. Moreover, the increases in distress, loneliness, and substance use became non-significant when controlling for boredom. Boredom proneness remained associated with all adverse outcomes when accounting for state boredom. In contrast, the relationships between state boredom and most adverse outcomes lost significance when controlling for boredom proneness, and state boredom was positively associated with increased hope for the future. Overall, the results suggest that high boredom proneness is an important vulnerability factor for poor psychological health and risky behaviors during the pandemic. However, high levels of recent state boredom, independent of boredom proneness, do not predict similarly negative outcomes. State boredom may indicate the extent to which one remains hopeful that circumstances will improve without resorting to risky, potentially maladaptive coping strategies. MDPI 2022-08-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9405470/ /pubmed/36004869 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12080298 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Weiss, Emily R.
Todman, McWelling
Maple, Emily
Bunn, Rebecca R.
Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19
title Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19
title_full Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19
title_fullStr Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19
title_short Boredom in a Time of Uncertainty: State and Trait Boredom’s Associations with Psychological Health during COVID-19
title_sort boredom in a time of uncertainty: state and trait boredom’s associations with psychological health during covid-19
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9405470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36004869
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12080298
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