Boredom proneness and Chinese vocational college students academic disengagement: mediating role of academic self-efficacy and moderating role of self-control

TL;DR

This study shows how boredom proneness leads to academic disengagement in vocational college students, with self-control playing a key role in reducing this effect.

Contribution

The study introduces a moderated mediation model showing how self-control influences the link between boredom proneness and academic disengagement.

Findings

Boredom proneness positively predicts academic disengagement.

Academic self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between boredom proneness and disengagement.

Self-control moderates the direct and indirect effects of boredom proneness on disengagement.

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the relationship between boredom proneness and academic disengagement among vocational college students, specifically examining the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and the moderating effect of self-control in this relationship.

The study employed a cross-sectional design to investigate the direct and indirect pathways between boredom proneness and academic disengagement. It also explored whether self-control would moderate these relationships.

The participants were 2,687 vocational college students from Guangxi, China, who were recruited through a convenience sampling method. The students completed measures assessing boredom proneness, academic disengagement, academic self-efficacy, and self-control. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data, and moderated mediation analyses were conducted to explore the moderating effects of self-control.

The results indicate that boredom proneness positively predicts academic disengagement. Academic self-efficacy was found to partially mediate this association. Subsequently, moderated-mediation analyses further revealed that trait self-control qualifies both the direct and indirect links between boredom proneness and disengagement. When self-control is high, the path from boredom proneness to diminished academic self-efficacy is attenuated and avoidance behaviors remain low; conversely, when self-control is low, the same path is intensified and avoidance behaviors escalate.

This study elucidates the mechanisms connecting boredom proneness to academic disengagement in vocational-college students by demonstrating that self-control significantly moderates this pathway. The findings imply that interventions designed to strengthen self-control may attenuate academic disengagement within this population.

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