A boredom tolerance training: A treatment model for externalizing disorders

Journal title QUADERNI DI PSICOTERAPIA COGNITIVA
Author/s Carlotta Bertini, Marco Saettoni, Simone Cheli
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/53
Language Italian Pages 12 P. 59-70 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/qpc53-2023oa16932
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By considering the important role that boredom tolerance-proneness seems to play in various forms of adult psychopathology, the authors wondered whether working on this emotion in children with disorders referable to the externalizing spectrum could affect specific performance related to sustained visual attention. The aim of this pilot study is to explore the feasibility and effects of applying a specific intervention for boredom regulation in infants and primary school children. The intervention has been conceived as a sequence of exercises based on mindfulness and metacognition whose goal is to train children’s tolerance to boredom that is the state of perceiving the external environment as monotonous, repetitive, with low levels of stimulation associated in turn with an affectivity characterized by a poorly pleasant emotional state. The data show good adherence to treatment and a significant improvement in selective and sustained attention at the end of the treatment. Our findings are encouraging and demonstrate that the proposed intervention can be a reliable intervention to be integrated with other approaches for the treatment of externalizing disorders in children.

Keywords: ; Externalized disorders; Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD); Conduct disorder (CD); Disruptive impulse control and conduct disorders (DCD); Boredom; Group treatment for developmental age

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Carlotta Bertini, Marco Saettoni, Simone Cheli, L’allenamento alla noia: un modello di trattamento per i disturbi esternalizzanti in "QUADERNI DI PSICOTERAPIA COGNITIVA" 53/2023, pp 59-70, DOI: 10.3280/qpc53-2023oa16932