Activity Characteristics and Emotional Experience: Predicting Boredom and Anxiety in the Daily Life of Community Mental Health Clients

Abstract

Little is known about the day-to-day experience of people with mental illness. The research that has been conducted has characterized the lives of people with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) as largely solitary and little meaningful activity. In addition, mood states of boredom and anxiety have been implicated in the functioning of clients with mental illness in community treatment settings. The purpose of this study was to examine the daily life of people with SPMI and identify if challenge/skill qualities of activity were related to mood states of boredom and anxiety. Subjects (n = 8) were drawn from a community mental health center in a Midwestern city. Data were collected using an experience sampling method and examined at the experience level of analysis (n = 326). Logistic regression was used to examine if activity characteristics predicted boredom or anxiety. Findings indicated that the majority of subjects' time was spent in activities in which skill exceeded challenge (75.1%). Activity characteristics were found to be significant predictors of the reporting of anxiety, but were not significant predictors of boredom. Findings are discussed in terms of future research and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Experience sampling
• mental illness
• anxiety
• boredom
• flow