Cultural Differences in the Relationships Among Autonomy Support, Psychological Need Satisfaction, Subjective Vitality, and Effort in British and Chinese Physical Education

Abstract

Using basic psychological needs theory (BPNT; as our guiding framework, we explored cultural differences in the relationships among Physical Education (PE) students' perceptions of teacher autonomy support, psychological need satisfaction, subjective vitality and effort in class. Seven hundred and fifteen students (age range from 13-15 years) from the UK and Hong Kong, China completed a multi-section inventory during a timetabled PE class. Multilevel analyses revealed that the relationships among autonomy support, subjective vitality and effort were mediated by students' perceptions of psychological need satisfaction. The relationship between autonomy support and perceptions of competence was stronger in the Chinese sample, compared to the UK sample. Also, the relationship between perceptions of relatedness and effort was not significant in the Chinese students. The findings generally support the pan-cultural utility of BPNT and imply that a teacher-created autonomy supportive environment may promote positive student experiences in both cultures.

On psychological growth and vulnerability: Basic psychological need satisfaction and need frustration as a unifying principle.

“…Importantly, both individualistic and collectivisitic modes of functioning can occur volitionally, or can come with feelings of pressure. In line with this, empirical studies sampling non-western groups (e.g., Chen, Vansteenkiste, Beyers, Soenens, & Van Petegem, 2012) have shown that autonomy can be distinguished from independent decision making, and moreover that there are better relational and personal well-being outcomes for those Further, various studies conducted in culturally diverse nations like Korea, China, Russia, Jordan among others have shown that need satisfaction predicts well-being in non-western individuals, and several multi-nation studies have reported similar evidence (e.g., Chirkov, Ryan, & Willness, 2005;Taylor & Lonsdale, 2010). Perhaps the strongest recent evidence was provided by who demonstrated that unique associations between the three need satisfactions and well-being, and these were invariant across the four studied countries (i.e., Peru, Belgium, US, and China).…”

A cluster randomized controlled trial of strategies to increase adolescents' physical activity and motivation in physical education: Results of the Motivating Active Learning in Physical Education (MALP) trial

“…Additionally, students completed questionnaires to measure their perceived autonomy (Ng et al, 2011;Standage and Gillison, 2007), competence (McAuley et al, 1989), and relatedness (Richer and Vallerand, 1998), as well as perceptions of teacher autonomy supportive behavior (Taylor and Lonsdale, 2010) (secondary outcomes). An overall self-determination index (SDI) was formed using scores from the four subscales of the Situational Motivation Scale (2 * intrinsic motivation + identified motivation -external regulation -2 * amotivation) (Lonsdale et al, 2009).…”

“…To test the fidelity of the interventions, teachers' verbal communication was recorded in the baseline and post-intervention lessons using a wireless recording device. Two independent researchers, blinded to arm allocation and study hypotheses, assessed teachers' autonomy supportive behaviors using items from the Teacher as Social Context Questionnaire (Taylor and Lonsdale, 2010). Scores on two items: (1) "The teacher gave the students choices about how they do the tasks in PE" (labeled 'choice provided'); and (2) "The teacher talks about how the students can use the things they learn in PE" (labeled 'relevance explained') were used to determine if the interventions had successfully manipulated choice and relevance, respectively.…”

The effectiveness of an Autonomy-Supportive Teaching Structure in Physical Education. [Eficacia de la estructura de enseñanza con soporte de autonomía en educación física].

“…To assess autonomy need satisfaction, students completed a five-item perceived autonomy scale that has been widely used within the PE setting (Cheon & Moon, 2010;Standage et al, 2006;Taylor & Lonsdale, 2010;Taylor, Ntoumanis, Standage, & Spray, 2010) . Sample items include "I have my own say regarding which skills I want to practise in this PE class" and "I can decide which activities I want to practise in this PE class".…”