The significance of academic emotions in learning processes, motivation, and academic outcomes has been demonstrated in numerous cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Ahmed et al., 2013; Pekrun, 2017; Radišić et al., 2024), spanning from the early years of elementary school (Mata et al., 2021) to later stages in higher education (Bieleke et al., 2021).

Based on control-value theory, academic emotions encompass a set of affective, cognitive, motivational, and behavioural processes related to achievement activities and outcomes. Academic emotions can be categorised according to three key dimensions: focus (activity-focused vs. outcome-focused), valence (positive, negative, or neutral), and control (high, medium, or low) (Pekrun, 2006). Recently, boredom has emerged as a significant area of interest due to its prevalent existence in school life (Blažanin, 2018; Martz et al., 2018) and the growing evidence of its detrimental effects on academic outcomes (Grazia et al., 2021; Tze et al., 2016), motivation (Pekrun, 2006), and school attrition (Grazia et al., 2021). Furthermore, boredom is particularly noteworthy as an academic emotion because studies indicate an increasing trend with age (Ahmed et al., 2013; Grazia et al., 2021), even from the earliest school grades (Mata et al., 2022).

Boredom can be defined as an activity-focused emotion that is both unpleasant and deactivating. It may arise when students perceive their tasks as unimportant or too easy, hence not sufficiently challenging. However, Pekrun (2006) highlights that boredom can also stem from the opposite scenario, where the task is excessively difficult and overly demanding. Students are unlikely to experience boredom when tasks are “just right” in terms of difficulty, aligning with their current knowledge and abilities. 

To examine this theory, Schwartz and colleagues (2024) conducted a study aimed at exploring the prevalence of bored elementary school students who are either over-challenged or under-challenged in mathematics. The results revealed four profiles of students: Over-challenged (high boredom and low achievement, 13%), Under-challenged (high boredom and high achievement, 21%), Well-off (low boredom and high achievement, 27%), and Indifferent (low boredom and low achievement, 39%). As the authors noted, there is a need to replicate the study in various contexts to validate the identified student profiles. Moreover, it would be interesting to analyse whether the trajectories of these profiles remain stable throughout the year or change.

The present study will focus on boredom related to mathematics, given the subject's importance for the development of future-essential skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and analytical thinking (OECD, 2019). Additionally, considering the early manifestation of math-related boredom among students (Mata et al., 2022), we decided to concentrate on primary school-aged children. Specifically, we aimed to assess boredom during the transition from fourth to fifth grade, as this period marks the shift from class-organised teaching (one teacher instructs all subjects) to subject-organised teaching (each subject is taught by a different teacher). In light of all the previously mentioned points, the objectives of this study are:

1. To identify profiles of students based on their levels of boredom and mathematics achievement in the fourth and fifth grades of elementary school.

H1: We anticipate identifying four profiles of students in both the fourth and fifth grades: Over-challenged, Under-challenged, Well-off, and Indifferent profiles (Schwartz et al., 2024).

2. To explore the stability of these identified profiles during the transition from the fourth to the fifth grade.

H2: We expect a moderately stable trajectory of boredom profiles (Mata et al., 2024; Pavlova et al., 2024).

Participants The data were collected from an international longitudinal study examining the development of mathematics motivation in primary education, known as MATHMot. This study was conducted across six European countries and was funded by the Research Council of Norway (grant number 301033). In the first wave of the study, 1,021 fourth-grade students from Serbia participated, and the following year, the same students took part in the second wave of the study (N=801). Parental consent was obtained for each student, and all survey instruments were administered in a paper-and-pencil format during regular mathematics classes. Measures Academic emotions were assessed using the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire for Elementary School (AEQ-ES) (Lichtenfeld et al., 2012). The AEQ-ES consists of 28 items, of which 7 measure boredom. Four items assess boredom in class, while 3 measure boredom when doing homework. Items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all to 5 = very much) accompanied by five graphical displays of faces showing increasing emotional intensity. The boredom subscale demonstrated good reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94 for boredom in class and 0.91 for boredom when doing homework. Scores for homework and class-related boredom were calculated by averaging the items and then standardising them. Mathematics achievement was assessed using 14 mathematics tasks selected from the TIMSS 2011 Grade 4 assessment (IEA Approval 22-022). The test covered major curricular topics for each grade, including numbers, geometry, and data display. The Rasch measurement model was employed to estimate mathematics scores for students in both grades. Finally, the math scores were standardised to be comparable to the boredom scores. The Analytical Approach Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted on the standardised scores for homework-related boredom, class boredom, and performance on mathematics tests. LPA was carried out separately for fourth and fifth grades. Models with one to six latent classes (C=1-6) were tested to determine the number of profiles that best fit the data. The final solution was selected based on a combination of the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), entropy index, bootstrapped likelihood ratio test (BLRT), Vuong-Lo-Mendel-Rubin likelihood ratio test (VL-LRT), and the Lo-Mendell-Rubin adjusted likelihood ratio test (LMR). The stability of extracted profiles from the LPA was tested with latent transition analysis. Both analyses were conducted using Mplus 8.11 software.

In the fourth grade, we identified four student profiles. The largest group, Well-off students (49%), comprised those who those who were not bored and performed a above average in math. The second-largest group, Indifferent (30%), consisted of students who exhibited moderate boredom and achieved average results. Two smaller groups included Overchallenged students, who were both bored and performed below average. One subgroup consisted of overperformers who were particularly bored with completing homework (Homework-oriented Overchallenged - 13%), while the other group included students who felt especially bored in class (Class-oriented Overchallenged - 7%). Compared to previous findings, we identified all profiles of students, with the exception of the under-challenged students (those who perform highly in maths but are bored) (Schwartze et al., 2024). In the fifth grade, six student profiles emerged. Indifferent students (34%) remained the largest group, while the Well-off group declined significantly (24%). Interestingly, we were able to identify an Under-performing group of students (15%). The fourth group consisted of Class-oriented Overchallenged students (11%), while the last two profiles appeared to be qualitatively different: Bored & Moderate (9%), comprising highly bored students with average achievement, and Homework-oriented High Achievers (7%), who were high performers particularly bored with homework. Latent transition analysis revealed that Well-off students in the fourth grade had the greatest chance of remaining in the same group (41%) or becoming indifferent (35%) in the fifth grade. Indifferent students from the fourth grade had the highest likelihood of remaining in the same group in the fifth grade (43%). Interestingly, Class-oriented Overchallenged students exhibited the highest chance of transitioning to Under-challenged students (44%), while Homework-oriented Overchallenged students had similar probabilities of being placed in every profile in the fifth grade. The findings will be discussed in the context of the Serbian educational system as well as previous studies on boredom.

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