Getting students engaged might not be enough: the importance of psychological needs satisfaction on social-emotional and behavioral functioning among early adolescents

Abstract

This study examined the relations between students' social-emotional/ behavioral functioning, engagement, and basic psychological needs satisfaction among a sample of N = 83 sixth grade students. A mediation model was tested to examine the role of needs satisfaction on the relations between engagement and socialemotional/behavioral functioning. Results indicated that engaged students have lower social-emotional and behavioral risk; however, this relation can be explained almost entirely by students' underlying satisfaction of basic psychological needs. These results suggest that targeting student engagement is not sufficient when attempting to improve social-emotional/behavioral outcomes; rather, students must also feel autonomous, competent, and experience a genuine connection with their school. Therefore, it appears that school-based programs designed to improve students' engagement in school might only have a limited impact on supporting social-emotional/behavioral functioning if basic psychological needs satisfaction is not also addressed.

Young adolescent psychological need profiles: Associations with classroom achievement and well‐being

“…For example, when assessed separately, the satisfaction of each need was found to have differential relations with outcomes such as academic attainment, engagement, well‐being, and social adjustment (e.g., Duchesne, Ratelle, & Feng, ; Jang, Reeve, Ryan, & Kim, ). Furthermore, averaging the three needs together into composite variable has been positively correlated with better school grades, engagement, and quality motivation (e.g., Badri, Amani‐Saribaglou, Ahrari, Jahadi, & Mahmoudi, ; Ntoumanis, ; Saeki & Quirk, ). Although each psychological need may have distinct correlates, such variable‐centered approaches fail to account for the practical interplay between the three needs when pupils actually experience them in the classroom (Ryan & Deci, ).…”

“…Relatedness refers to the need to form close, interpersonal relationships and feel connected with significant others (Baumeister & Leary, ). Positive associations have been well established between the satisfaction of pupils’ psychological needs and indicators of academic, emotional, and social development in cross‐sectional (e.g., Marshik, Ashton, & Algina, ; Saeki & Quirk, ; Taylor & Lonsdale, ), semester‐long (e.g., Tian, Chen, & Huebner, ; Véronneau, Koestner, & Abela, ), and multiple year studies (e.g., Ratelle & Duchesne, ). These academic and sociocognitive benefits have also been demonstrated across different taught school subjects (Erturan‐İlker, Quested, Appleton, & Duda, ).…”

Seeking alternative pathways: an exploration of school engagement from the perspectives of marginalized youth

“…The connection between SDT and engagement is echoed in other places throughout the literature (Archambault et al 2009;Niemiec and Ryan 2009;Saeki and Quirk 2015;Wang and Peck 2013). For example, autonomy, having a meaningful sense of choice or control over/within learning contexts, is correlated with increased achievement, setting goals to master material (i.e., mastery goals), self-efficacy, perceived confidence, self-esteem, and feelings of enjoyment and interest, as well as behavioral and emotional engagement.…”

“…Many researchers agree, suggesting that when students feel seen, heard, supported, and valued by their teachers and school staff, their motivation and engagement significantly increase (Archambault et al 2009;Lessard et al 2015;Rutman and Hubberstey 2016;Wallace and Chhuon 2014). Based on these findings, Saeki and Quirk (2015) advocate for addressing student psychological needs in order to increase school engagement.…”

Escala de Necesidades Psicológicas Básicas: adaptación al ámbito educativo en una muestra de adolescentes argentinos.

“…Para responder al segundo objetivo de la investigación, el cual implica estudiar la validez concurrente, se realizó un análisis de correlación entre la escala de Necesidades Psicológicas Básicas con el rendimiento académico y la Utrecht-Work Compromiso Scale (UWES) en su versión para estudiantes que mide el compromiso académico. Se analizó la correlación de la escala de NPB con la escala de compromiso académico porque existe abundante evidencia que muestra una relación positiva entre ambas variables (Bassi & DelleFave, 2011;Jang, Reeve, Ryan, & Kim, 2009;Saeki & Quirk, 2015;Schaufeli et al, 2002;Zhen et al, 2016).…”