Distinct affective and impulsivity-related profiles are associated with facets of state boredom in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract Boredom is an aversive human experience, driving individuals to change their current action in order to acquire new information from their environment and engage in meaningful activity. While boredom under healthy conditions can functionally affect behavior, various mental disorders have been linked with chronically elevated levels of boredom that promote dysfunctional behaviors. In particular, patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often report heightened and persistent boredom experience, driving these individuals to engage in risky and dangerous actions. Despite this relevance, it remains unclear how boredom specifically manifests in ADHD and how aspects of individual psychopathology relate to differences in experiencing boredom and coping with it. In this exploratory study, we address this issue, combining self-reports of adult ADHD patients on experienced boredom with reports on their psychopathology and mind-wandering. We observe that ADHD patients vary substantially in the extent and pattern with which they experience boredom. Moreover, different affective and impulsivity-related symptoms are associated with systematic differences in boredom experience. We apply statistical modeling to quantify this relationship, finding that different components of boredom experience are associated with distinct patterns of psychopathological symptoms. Interestingly, when relating the individual psychopathological patterns to reports of mind-wandering, we observe that mind-wandering is primarily heightened in those ADHD patients who show an association of boredom and affective rather than impulsivity-related symptoms. Taken together, our exploratory study indicates that ADHD patients vary substantially in their experience of boredom, depending on their individual psychopathological constitution. Boredom-related psychopathological patterns may reflect different strategies of individuals to cope with boredom, and thus should be considered when aiming to address boredom in a therapeutic setting.