Boredom, a complex emotional state with implications for mental health and well-being, has garnered attention across disciplines, yet remains relatively understudied in psychiatric research. Here, we explored the intricate relationship between trait-impulsivity, stress, and boredom across two studies. Participants completed self-report measures of trait-impulsivity and boredom and boredom-inducing tasks. Study 1, involving 80 participants (42 women and 38 men, aged 20-63), replicates previous findings, by demonstrating that impulsive individuals report greater boredom following a boring task. Study 2 then extends this, using 20 participants (9 women and 12 men, aged 18-24), to show that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, specifically heightened salivary cortisol responses, mediate the link between impulsivity and boredom following a boring task. Collectively, these results demonstrate that HPA axis activity may underline the relationship between trait-impulsivity and boredom by extending previous work and offering a novel insight into potential mechanisms. These findings offer promise for personalised interventions, designed for high impulsivity individuals, to alleviate the negative impacts of boredom and potentially break the identified feedback loop.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study is to examine the relationship between the economic activity of small firms and the mental well-being of the population in five Latin American countries in the early stages of the pandemic.
METHODS: We utilize the search volume of certain keywords on Google Trends (GT), such as \"boredom,\" \"frustration,\" \"loneliness,\" \"sleep\", \"anxiety\", and \"depression\", as an indicator of the well-being of the population. By examining the data from Facebook Business Activity Trends, we investigate how social attention reacts to the activity levels of different economic sectors.
RESULTS: Increased business activity is generally associated with reduced levels of boredom, loneliness, sleep problems and anxiety. The effect on depression varies by sector, with positive associations concentrated in onsite jobs. In addition, we observe that strict Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) tend to exacerbate feelings of boredom and loneliness, sleep issues, and anxiety.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a strong association between different indicators of psychological well-being and the level of activity in different sectors of the economy. Given the essential role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in generating employment, especially during crises like the pandemic, it is imperative that they remain resilient and adaptable to support economic recovery and job preservation. To accomplish this, policymakers need to focus on providing financial stability and support for SMEs, fostering social support networks within companies, and incorporating mental health services into workplace environments. This comprehensive strategy can alleviate mental health challenges and enhance public health resilience.

UNASSIGNED: Boredom, a state where the task at hand presents difficulties in attentional resources and attributed meaning, can be detrimental to talent development by reducing cognitive engagement. This study employed a mixed sequential design to assess boredom in adolescents with exceptional mathematical talent in Paraguay participating in a talent development program.
UNASSIGNED: First, in the quantitative phase 54 students completed the Boredom Short Scale, School Attitudes Assessment Survey-Revised, and Psychological Well-Being Scale for Adolescents. Next, in the qualitative phase 50 students participated in focus groups to explore their personal experiences of boredom, along with their perception of possible factors that impact boredom.
UNASSIGNED: Boredom in this population was similar to the general population of adolescents, albeit significant differences existed in items and subscales showing a pattern unique to this population; they tended to become bored quicker but had an easier time sparking interest in activities. Higher boredom had small to moderate correlations with worse attitudes at school and with teachers, lower motivation and self-regulation in academic activities, lower self-control, and lower involvement in personal projects. Higher valuation of goals and academic self-perception related with a lower tendency toward boredom only in the context of a talent development program, but not at school. Boredom seemed multifaceted, with dimensions such as the absence of meaning, superficial entertainment, and wasted time. Contributing factors included waiting for other people\'s slower pace, limited choices, lack of novelty, insufficient intellectual challenge, and the influence of teachers and social dynamics. Coping mechanisms included inner intellectual stimulation, seeking entertainment and escape, pursuing independent learning, extracurricular activities, like-minded peers, and extreme sensation-seeking.
UNASSIGNED: Fostering adequate challenge and support in advanced academic endeavors for the development of mathematical talent can prevent negative consequences associated with boredom in exceptionally talented populations.

With the wave of positive psychology in second language acquisition, more emotion factors are gaining scholarly attention. Despite extensive research on Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI), burnout and boredom in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) studies, the interplay of these variables remains unknown and the related impact on EFL learner\'s English Language Performance (ELP) is still underexplored. Given this, in light of Control-Value Theory (CVT), the present study used a quantitative method to examine the mediating roles of boredom and burnout in the connection between TEI and ELP among Chinese university students engaged in EFL endeavor. Data were collected from 489 s-year non-English major students. Structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the relationships. Results revealed that TEI significantly influences ELP among Chinese EFL university students, through its correlation with both boredom and burnout. Higher levels of TEI are associated with reduced experiences of these negative states, which in turn are linked to improved language performance. These may imply that teacher educators should integrate emotional intelligence training into curricula and professional development to improve students\' effectiveness and learning outcome.

Mental fatigue has been highly cited as having a negative impact on endurance performance. Few, however, have investigated whether different types of mental fatigue, namely active and passive fatigue, might affect endurance performance differently. This study used a repeated-measures design where 11 participants completed a 3 km run after three 32-min conditions: an actively fatiguing task (Task-load Dual-back; TloadDback); a passively fatiguing task (Mackworth Clock); and a control task (Documentary). Subjective ratings and performance on a second task (Flanker task) were taken before and after the 32-min tasks, while ratings of perceived effort, motivation and workload were taken during the 3 km run. Results showed that both fatigue conditions were mentally fatiguing, with the TloadDback rated as more demanding and the Mackworth Clock more boring and less motivating. Performance on subsequent tasks showed different effects: the TloadDback condition had the slowest responses on the post-test Flanker task, while the Mackworth Clock condition had the slowest completion time on the 3 km run, though this difference in completion times was non-significant. These results suggest that different cognitive tasks lead to different types of mental fatigue, which can lead to different outcomes on subsequent cognitive tasks but non-significant differences on subsequent physical tasks. This study highlights that to understand the influence of mental fatigue on physical performance, it is important to understand the cognitive tasks used and how different cognitive and physical tasks interact. Future work should examine whether performance outcomes in other areas commonly affected by mental fatigue, like technical and tactical sporting skills, are affected differently by active and passive fatigue.

BACKGROUND: Recent research on boredom suggests that it can emerge in situations characterized by over- and under-challenge. In learning contexts, this implies that high boredom may be experienced both by low- and high-achieving students.
OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to explore the existence and prevalence of boredom due to being over- and under-challenged in mathematics, for which empirical evidence is lacking.
METHODS: We employed a sample of 1.407 students (fifth to ninth graders) from all three secondary school tracks (lower, middle and upper) in Bavaria (Germany).
METHODS: Boredom was assessed via self-report and achievement via a standardized mathematics test. We used latent profile analysis to identify groups characterized by different levels of boredom and achievement, and we additionally examined gender and school track as group membership predictors.
RESULTS: Results revealed four distinct groups, of which two showed considerably high boredom. One was coupled with low achievement on the test (i.e. \'over-challenged group\', 13% of the total sample), and one was coupled with high achievement (i.e. \'under-challenged group\', 21%). Furthermore, we found a low boredom and high achievement (i.e. \'well-off group\', 27%) and a relatively low boredom low achievement group (i.e. \'indifferent group\', 39%). Girls were overrepresented in the over-challenged group, and students from the upper school track were underrepresented in the under-challenged group.
CONCLUSIONS: Our research emphasizes the need to openly discuss and further investigate boredom due to being over- and under-challenged.

Despite people\'s general desire to avoid cognitive effort, there is a limit to our parsimony: boredom, a state defined by a lack of successful mental engagement, is found to be similarly aversive. The work presented here investigates how context - the alternative tasks present and the environmental context - impacts people\'s aversion to exerting cognitive effort and avoiding boredom via a demand-selection task. In a population of undergraduate students, we assessed how people\'s willingness to exert mental effort (in a working memory task) is affected by the presence of an easier alternative (less cognitively demanding) or a boring alternative (doing nothing at all). To manipulate environmental context, we conducted the experiment online, where participants completed the task remotely, and in a controlled laboratory setting. We find people willingly seek out effortful tasks to avoid boredom, despite avoiding high demands when both tasks on offer required some effort. We also find large effects of the participants\' environmental context, with preferences for the most demanding task increasing by over 150% in the lab compared to online. These results bear relevance to theories that argue the costs of effort are determined relative to the alternatives available (e.g., opportunity cost theories). Moreover, the results demonstrate that researchers who deliberately (or inadvertently) manipulate effort and boredom must consider the effects context (both choice and environmental) may have on people\'s behaviour.

UNASSIGNED: Short video apps are very popular among Chinese college students, and some students even rely on them. Most of the current research has focused only on Internet addiction and has seldom focused on the phenomenon of short video addiction. Its influencing factors and formation mechanism are worth exploring.
UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to explore the relationship between social exclusion and short video addiction among college students and the mediating roles of boredom and self-control.
UNASSIGNED: This study adopted a multistage investigation and investigated 532 college students (39% male; mean age 19.32 ± 1.23 years) with a social exclusion scale, boredom proneness scale, self-control scale, and short video addiction scale. The mediating effect was tested with Process 3.1.
UNASSIGNED: The results showed that social exclusion has a positive predictive effect on college student\'s short video addiction. The impact of social exclusion on college student\'s short video addiction was mediated by boredom and self-control, and the chained mediation of boredom and self-control.
UNASSIGNED: Theoretically, this study modified the I-PACE model, indicating that personal and distant social factors should be considered in individuals with behavioral addictions, such as short video addiction. Practically, the results suggested that schools should reduce peer rejection and improve students\' mental health literacy to reduce boredom and enhance self-control, thus effectively preventing short video addiction.

UNASSIGNED: Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) contributed significantly to suicide assessment, however, our theoretical understanding of this complex behavior is still limited.
UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to harness AI methodologies to uncover hidden risk factors that trigger or aggravate suicide behaviors.
UNASSIGNED: The primary dataset included 228,052 Facebook postings by 1,006 users who completed the gold-standard Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. This dataset was analyzed using a bottom-up research pipeline without a-priory hypotheses and its findings were validated using a top-down analysis of a new dataset. This secondary dataset included responses by 1,062 participants to the same suicide scale as well as to well-validated scales measuring depression and boredom.
UNASSIGNED: An almost fully automated, AI-guided research pipeline resulted in four Facebook topics that predicted the risk of suicide, of which the strongest predictor was boredom. A comprehensive literature review using APA PsycInfo revealed that boredom is rarely perceived as a unique risk factor of suicide. A complementing top-down path analysis of the secondary dataset uncovered an indirect relationship between boredom and suicide, which was mediated by depression. An equivalent mediated relationship was observed in the primary Facebook dataset as well. However, here, a direct relationship between boredom and suicide risk was also observed.
UNASSIGNED: Integrating AI methods allowed the discovery of an under-researched risk factor of suicide. The study signals boredom as a maladaptive \'ingredient\' that might trigger suicide behaviors, regardless of depression. Further studies are recommended to direct clinicians\' attention to this burdening, and sometimes existential experience.

OBJECTIVE: To identify experiences of boredom and associations with psychosocial well-being during and following homelessness.
METHODS: Using a convergent, mixed-methods explanatory design, we conducted quantitative interviews with 164 participants) (n = 102 unhoused; n = 62 housed following homelessness) using a 92-item protocol involving demographic components and seven standardized measures of psychosocial well-being. A sub-sample (n = 32) was approached to participate in qualitative interviews. Data were analyzed by group (unhoused; housed). Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics designed to generate insights into boredom, meaningful activity engagement, and their associations with psychosocial well-being during and following homelessness. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Quantitative and qualitative findings were integrated at the stage of discussion.
RESULTS: Quantitative analyses revealed small to moderate correlations between boredom and increased hopelessness (rs = .376, p < .01), increased drug use (rs = .194, p < .05), and lowered mental well-being (rs = -.366, p < .01). There were no statistically significant differences between unhoused and housed participants on any standardized measures. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that housing status was not a significant predictor of boredom or meaningful activity engagement (p>.05). Qualitative interviews revealed profound boredom during and following homelessness imposing negative influences on mental well-being and driving substance use.
CONCLUSIONS: Boredom and meaningful activity are important outcomes that require focused attention in services designed to support individuals during and following homelessness. Attention to this construct in future research, practice, and policy has the potential to support the well-being of individuals who experience homelessness, and to contribute to efforts aimed at homelessness prevention.