Correlates and Characteristics of Boredom Proneness and Boredom¹

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between boredom proneness, mood monitoring, mood labeling, and tendency to experience flow; and explored some qualitative, phenomenological aspects of boredom. College students ( N = 170) responded to an anonymous questionnaire containing the Boredom Proneness Scale (Farmer & Sundberg, 1986), the Mood Awareness Scale (Swinkels & Giuliano, 1995), a measure of flow proneness, and questions about the experience of boredom. As predicted, Boredom Proneness was positively correlated with mood monitoring, negatively correlated with mood labeling, and negatively correlated with flow. Respondents provided interesting information about their perceptions of boredom, its causes, and their strategies for coping with and planning for boring situations. A majority of participants described positive aspects of boredom, and 10% volunteered that they were never bored.