Boredom proneness is a relatively stable dispositional vulnerability associated with adolescents' problematic social media use (PSMU). However, it remains unclear whether this association reflects stable between-person differences, within-person temporal dynamics, or both. This study examined the reciprocal longitudinal associations between boredom proneness and PSMU among Chinese adolescents.

The widespread adoption of online learning in higher education has brought increased attention to academic burnout among university students. Although numerous studies have explored the manifestations, influencing factors and interventions of college students' online academic burnout, few have consolidated and summarized the buffering effect of perceived teacher support. This Mini-Review, informed by the PRISMA 2020 framework, identified and analyzed 26 empirical studies retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus, extracting key data on research design, sample characteristics, and analytical approaches into a structured Excel matrix. This synthesis identifies three main findings. First, academic burnout in online settings is characterized by emotional exhaustion, heightened anxiety, loss of control, and a paradoxical imbalance between learning anxiety and enjoyment, shaped by both internal resources (psychological capital, self-efficacy, digital resilience) and external barriers (pedagogical, technological, and social constraints). Second, perceived teacher support is associated with reduced burnout through a direct protective pathway and three indirect mechanisms: enhancing academic self-efficacy, regulating emotional experiences (e.g., enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety), and facilitating acceptance of online learning (perceived usefulness and ease of use). Third, individual factors (e.g., psychological capital, digital resilience) and contextual conditions (e.g., peer support, technical environment) are tentatively proposed to moderate these associations, pending direct empirical testing. By integrating existing research and identifying gaps in the field, this review provides theoretical and practical insights for alleviating university students' online academic burnout, optimizing teacher-student interaction in online settings, and building a supportive teaching system.

This study explored participants' experiences and perceptions of the psychosocial influences associated with sports betting and gambling practices among regular bettors in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. A qualitative ethnographic design was employed to examine the everyday experiences, meanings, and motivations attached to sports betting. Forty participants (N = 40), comprising 37 regular bettors and three key informants, were purposively recruited from four betting houses in Masvingo urban. Data were generated through in-depth interviews and participant observation conducted over a twelve-month period from January to December 2024. Participants reflected on their gambling histories, motivations for betting, and challenges associated with their involvement. Findings suggested that participants perceived peer relationships, social learning, economic insecurity, familial exposure, and emotional distress as important influences associated with their engagement in gambling. Economic hardship and youth unemployment further influenced engagement, as many viewed sports betting as a potential income-generating strategy and a means of coping with financial insecurity. Emotional distress, including stress, grief, frustration, and boredom, also motivated gambling, with betting serving as a temporary psychological escape from daily challenges. Family gambling practices were found to normalize risk-taking behaviors among some participants. Although betting houses provided social interaction and a sense of belonging, they simultaneously reinforced maladaptive coping strategies and heightened vulnerability to problem gambling. The study underscores the need for integrated interventions addressing mental health support, youth economic empowerment, family involvement, and community awareness of gambling-related harms in urban Zimbabwe.

Teledildonics are internet-connected sex toys enabling remote and interactive sexual experiences. Despite growing adoption, factors driving engagement with teledildonics remain underexplored. Clarifying how user motivations intersect to form distinct profiles is crucial for advancing theoretical models of sexual behavior and technology adoption. This study draws on a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data from customers of one teledildonics company. Using latent class analysis, we identified motivational patterns among male users (N = 569) across five indicators (arousal enhancement, relaxation, sexual satisfaction in a partner's absence, boredom relief, and technology integration) and examined associations between latent class membership and sociodemographics (e.g., age, sexual orientation, relationship status), usage modalities (i.e., frequency, concurrent pornography use, sex toy type), and sexual satisfaction. A four-class solution best fit the data. Solo Comfort Seekers (Class 1, 38.2%) strongly endorsed partner-substitution motives and were characterized by regular pairing with pornography. Low-Regulation Users (Class 2, 30.3%) showed the weakest endorsement of relaxation and boredom relief. Standalone Toy Users (Class 3, 22.6%) showed the lowest endorsement of technological integration and favored manual devices. Tech-Integrated Regulators (Class 4, 8.9%) moderately to strongly endorsed all motives and almost always used teledildonics with pornography. This study shows that teledildonics practices are embedded in complex individual and relational contexts, shaped by more than the pursuit of sexual pleasure. Recognizing these diverse profiles can inform theory, guide inclusive device design, and support tailored health promotion that advances sexual well-being and responds to evolving forms of intimacy.

Drawing on the Control-Value Theory (CVT), this study adopts a dual-analytical approach to investigate the interplay of writing self-efficacy, emotions (enjoyment, anxiety, boredom), and engagement among 1,879 Chinese EFL learners. The variable-centered analysis identified writing self-efficacy as a key correlate of both behavioral and cognitive engagement, showing significant direct associations with engagement as well as indirect associations through the differentiated mediating roles of the three emotions. Notably, boredom emerged as the emotional correlate of behavioral engagement, whereas all three emotions were associated with cognitive engagement, suggesting that the role of emotions in engagement may not be uniform across engagement dimensions. Complementing these findings, the person-centered analysis identified four distinct latent profiles ranging from High Efficacy and Enjoyment to Lowest Efficacy and High Distress, which differed systematically in engagement outcomes. While behavioral engagement was comparatively insensitive to differences in emotional intensity once self-efficacy was low, cognitive engagement showed a clearer hierarchical pattern across profiles. The identification of a subgroup exhibiting concurrent high anxiety and high boredom alongside severely diminished self-efficacy illustrated a level of emotional complexity that variable-centered analyses would be unlikely to capture. Synthesizing these findings, the study suggests the potential value of considering both general associative patterns and learner-specific heterogeneity in future research and instructional practice on L2 writing.

Although AI-powered conversational tools are increasingly used in foreign language education, little is known about their longitudinal effects on learners' emotional experiences and willingness to communicate (WTC), particularly among beginner learners of languages other than English. Grounded in Positive Psychology, Control-Value Theory, and the WTC framework, this study examined the effects of AI-assisted speaking practice using TalkPal AI on foreign language enjoyment (FLE), foreign language anxiety (FLA), foreign language boredom (FLB), and WTC in Spanish as a foreign language.

Our interests, attentional focus and their integration, are formed by complex interactions across large-scale neural networks. To date, however, few studies have investigated the temporal dynamics of brain activity related to trait boredom proneness, which itself is related to attentional dysfunction and higher rates of depression and anxiety. In a large consortium dataset, we investigated the resting-state network characteristics of boredom proneness. We found that those reporting to be frequently bored had overall increased cortical connectivity compared with those who said they were never bored. In addition, we found that the frequently bored had increased integrated network topology and greater network flexibility compared with those who were never bored. Further analyses indicated that the pattern of functional connectivity was distinct from that observed for the related behavioural challenges of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Through this approach, we provide a potential neural underpinning for trait boredom proneness that links network topological changes related to ascending arousal neuromodulatory systems to heightened integration and flexibility in those highly prone to boredom.