| Objective: This research study expanded upon a cross-cultural study by Vodanovich and Watt (1999) to test for a moderating relationship between time structure and boredom proneness based on participant's tendency to make cognitive distortions. Method: To test whether cognitive distortions might moderate the relationship between time structure and proneness to boredom, 187 students were recruited at a Hong Kong community college and instructed to complete a packet of surveys including the Boredom Proneness Scale, the Time Structure Questionnaire, the Cognitive Distortions Scale, and a short demographic questionnaire. Results: As expected, a significant negative correlation was discovered between time structure and boredom proneness, which further validates the findings of Vodanovich and Watt (1999). When comparing mean scores from the samples described by Vodanovich and Watt (1999), Hong Kong students in this study were more prone to boredom than were their Irish counterparts, but less so than were the U.S. students. No statistically significant differences were detected between men and women for boredom proneness, time structure, or cognitive distortions, which appears to be a reflection of gender-equality in Hong Kong as well as shared cultural, socioeconomic, and educational factors. Cognitive distortions was not found to be a moderator between time structure and boredom proneness. Discussion: Hong Kong residents suffering from boredom may not benefit from adding a cognitive approach to behavioral interventions. This research also further validated the Cognitive Distortions Scale (Covin, Dozois, Ogniewicz, Seeds, 2011), which showed strong reliability with the predominantly Chinese sample involved in this study. Suggestions for future research in this area are suggested. |
