A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Boredom Proneness Scale

• Published in: The journal of psychology Vol. 143; no. 5; pp. 493 - 508
• Main Authors: Melton, Amanda M. A., Schulenberg, Stefan E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Heldref 01.10.2009; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Attitudes; Black college students; Boredom; Boredom Proneness Scale; College students; Colleges & universities; Confirmatory factor analysis; Exploratory factor analysis; Extracurricular activities; Factor structures; Female; Humans; Male; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Prone; Psychology; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Quantitative psychology; R&D; Reference Values; Reproducibility of Results; Research & development; Researchers; Students; Students - psychology; Studies; Young Adult; Youth; Youth culture
• ISSN: 0022-3980; 1940-1019
• DOI: 10.3200/JRL.143.5.493-508

Researchers have extensively investigated the factor structure of the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS; R. Farmer & N.D. Sundberg, 1986) using exploratory factor analyses (EFAs), with inconsistent methodology and results. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to perform confirmatory factor analyses on the BPS to better determine the nature and extent of its underlying factor structure. Participants were 279 undergraduate students majoring in psychology at a university in the southern United States. None of the tested models derived from earlier studies was a reasonable fit to the present data; therefore, the present authors performed an EFA. Although 2 factors were revealed, these results, coupled with markedly different results from previous factor analytic studies of the BPS, suggest it is unlikely that the present factor structure is replicable. The BPS does not appear to have a replicable factor structure.