Boredom in the Year of Quarantine

Many parents have heard plenty of boredom-based lamentations from their kids, even before the age of coronavirus. But COVID-19 and the resulting quarantines have brought boredom into our lives on a whole new level. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the child is four or fourteen, being trapped at home and without regular interaction with peers leads to fairly dramatic childhood ennui. In comparison to the devastating losses we are experiencing in the world right now, boredom is not a terribly urgent issue. But it can bring distress to children and their families. Understanding the roots of boredom can offer parents strategies for successfully navigating the doldrums. What is boredom? While there are multiple definitions of boredom, Westgate and Wilson provide a useful model. Boredom has two key tenets: attention and meaning deficits. Attention deficits are our brains yearning to bring our cognitive horsepower onto a task and having nowhere to put it. The human brain has impressive cognitive resources and looks for novel problems to apply them to. A meaning deficit refers to selected goals for our minds not lining up with our values. Our brains are wired to be goal-seeking, and to trigger reward circuitry when goals are achieved. If we aren’t fulfilled by the neurological reward, then there’s a mismatch and a lack of meaning. Is boredom good or bad? Many clinicians have noted associations with boredom and problematic behavior. For example, boredom associates with risk-ta...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Children and Teens Parenting Boredom coronavirus COVID-19 home school pandemic school age children social distancing Source Type: blogs