Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
PLoS One. 2020 Nov 5;15(11):e0241671. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241671. eCollection 2020.
Existing research shows that high achievement boredom is correlated with a range of undesirable behavioral and personality variables and that the main antecedents of boredom are being over- or under-challenged. However, merely knowing that students are highly bored, without taking their achievement level into account, might be insufficient for drawing conclusions about students' behavior and personality. We, therefore, investigated if low- vs. high-achieving students who experience strong mathematics boredom show different behaviors and personality traits. The sample consisted of 1,404 German secondary school students (fifth to 10th grade, mean age 12.83 years, 52% female). We used self-report instruments to assess boredom in mathematics, behavioral (social and emotional problems, positive/negative affect, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression), and personality variables (neuroticism and conscientiousness). In comparing highly bored students (more than one SD above M, n = 258) who were low vs. high achievers (as indicated by the math grade, n = 125 / n = 119), results showed that there were no mean level differences across those groups for all variables. In conclusion, our results suggest that high boredom can occur in both low- and high-achieving students and that bored low- and high-achievers show similar behaviors and personality profiles.
现有研究表明,高成就无聊感与一系列不良行为和个性变量相关,而无聊感的主要前因是过度或不足的挑战。然而,如果仅仅知道学生感到非常无聊,而不考虑他们的成就水平,可能不足以得出关于学生行为和个性的结论。因此,我们调查了经历强烈数学无聊感的低成就和高成就学生是否表现出不同的行为和个性特征。样本由 1404 名德国中学生(五至十年级,平均年龄 12.83 岁,女性占 52%)组成。我们使用自我报告工具评估数学中的无聊感、行为(社交和情绪问题、积极/消极影响、认知重评和表达抑制)和个性变量(神经质和尽责性)。在比较高度无聊的学生(高于平均值一个标准差以上,n = 258)和低成就(由数学成绩表示,n = 125/n = 119)时,结果表明,在所有变量中,两组之间没有平均值差异。总之,我们的结果表明,高成就和低成就的学生都可能会感到高度无聊,而且感到无聊的低成就和高成就学生表现出相似的行为和个性特征。