Tam Katy Y Y, van Tilburg Wijnand A P, Chan Christian S
Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Psychology, King's College London, London, UK.
J Pers. 2021 Aug;89(4):831-846. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12618. Epub 2021 Feb 3.
Boredom proneness is associated with various problematic behaviors and mental health issues. Despite its wide-ranging implication, boredom proneness as a trait-like construct suffers from conceptual ambiguity and measurement issues. We examined whether boredom proneness represents individual differences in (a) the frequency of getting bored, (b) the intensity of boredom, and/or (c) a holistic perception of life being boring (perceived life boredom).
Across Study 1 (U.S. Sample, N = 495; HK Sample, N = 231) and Study 2 (N = 608), we tested the construct validity of boredom proneness by estimating its association with measures of the three possible characterizations (convergent validity), and examined to what extent associations between boredom proneness and variables relevant to well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, psychological distress) could be reproduced with the three potential characterizations (concurrent validity).
Results suggest that each of the three characterizations represents some aspect of boredom proneness, and they generally reproduced boredom proneness' associations with other variables. Among them, perceived life boredom had the strongest convergent and concurrent validity.
Our findings provide novel insights into the characterization of boredom proneness and its hitherto poorly understood relationship with psychological well-being.
无聊倾向与各种问题行为和心理健康问题相关。尽管无聊倾向具有广泛影响，但作为一种特质类构念，它存在概念模糊和测量问题。我们研究了无聊倾向是否代表了以下方面的个体差异：（a）感到无聊的频率，（b）无聊的强度，和/或（c）对生活感到无聊的整体认知（感知到的生活无聊）。
在研究1（美国样本，N = 495；香港样本，N = 231）和研究2（N = 608）中，我们通过估计无聊倾向与三种可能特征的测量指标之间的关联来检验无聊倾向的结构效度（聚合效度），并考察无聊倾向与幸福相关变量（如生活满意度、心理困扰）之间的关联在多大程度上可以通过这三种潜在特征来重现（同时效度）。
结果表明，这三种特征各自代表了无聊倾向的某些方面，并且它们通常重现了无聊倾向与其他变量之间的关联。其中，感知到的生活无聊具有最强的聚合效度和同时效度。
我们的研究结果为无聊倾向的特征及其迄今为止与心理健康关系理解不足提供了新的见解。
