How Can Students Feel More Vital Amidst Severe Restrictions? Psychological Needs Satisfaction, Motivational Regulation and Vitality of Students during the Coronavirus Pandemic Restrictions

Abstract

During the pandemic restrictions imposed in spring 2020, many aspects of students’ living and learning environments changed drastically. From the perspective of Self-Determination Theory, changes in social context interact with the satisfaction or frustration of basic psychological needs and, as a result, with study-related motivational regulation and vitality. In this study, we investigate the relationships between the contextual factors of online-based distance learning, basic psychological needs, forms of motivational regulation and subjective vitality in a sample of N = 1849 university students across eight universities in Austria and Germany. Based on structural equational modelling, the results stress the relevance of satisfaction with technological resources in regard to higher levels of satisfaction in all three basic psychological needs, while perceived overload is linked to lower levels of needs satisfaction and increased basic psychological needs frustration. Further, the estimated workload difference before and during the pandemic is not related to the motivational outcomes of the model. All relationships have been tested for mediation effects between basic psychological needs and the different forms of motivational regulation on subjective vitality: for the need for relatedness, no mediation is found, while the effect of the need for autonomy is fully mediated by autonomous regulation styles. The need for competence was associated with several mediating interactions with regulation styles. The results offer insight into students’ perceptions of their study-related experiences during the pandemic and can help to develop effective methods in online-based and blended learning settings in the future.

University Students’ Basic Psychological Needs, Motivation, and Vitality Before and During COVID-19: A Self-Determination Theory Approach

“…We also investigated whether vitality during the forced distance learning period can be explained by BPNS and BPNF as well as the extent to which the regulatory motivational types are appropriate mediators in this relationship (hypotheses 5 and 6; see also Núñez and León, 2016 or Martinek et al, 2021 ). In line with our expectations, the results show that the satisfaction of autonomy and competence are strong predictors of self-determined types of motivation (cf.…”

“…Online situations with no direct social interactions may well be experienced as highly self-determined (e.g., Ryan et al, 2006 , 2010 ). If the other two basic psychological needs for autonomy and competence are reasonably satisfied, students may still be “well aligned with their inner selves” ( Martinek, et al, 2021 ) and the need for relatedness may play a subordinate role. Another reason could be that the basic need for relatedness is not predominantly satisfied in the study context, but by family and/or friends ( Legault et al, 2006 ; Tezci et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Overall, the age structure and subjects studied in samples 1 and 2 were fairly similar, which justifies a comparison between both groups (cf. Martinek et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Other studies have demonstrated direct ( Hsu et al, 2019 ) and indirect ( Chen and Jang, 2010 ) associations between BPNS and autonomous motivation in distance learning. Some studies have also suggested that the importance of relatedness in explaining autonomous forms of motivation is lower in distance learning, with autonomy and competence being strong predictors of motivation in online settings ( Huang et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019 ; Martinek et al, 2021 ). This indicates that distance learning is not per se associated with negative effects.…”

The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Postsecondary Students: An Analysis of Self-Determination

“…Although this pandemic has had catastrophic effects on the physical health of millions of individuals, the psychological impact of the virus has also proven detrimental [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The full psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be investigated; however, research has shown that postsecondary students are a population that is highly susceptible to psychological distress [ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Young adults between 18 and 24 years of age, the most common age group for postsecondary students, reported the highest levels of pandemic-related psychological distress when compared to other age groups, with a quarter of them reporting suicidal thoughts [ 10 , 11 ].…”