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

Objective: 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. Design: 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. Method: 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: 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.