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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1505710
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume V View all 5 articles

Autonomy support, basic needs satisfaction, and involvement in physical education among Norwegian secondary school students

Provisionally accepted
Amund Langoey Amund Langoey 1,2*Åge Diseth Åge Diseth 2Bente Wold Bente Wold 2Ellen Haug Ellen Haug 1,2
  • 1 NLA University College, Bergen, Norway
  • 2 University of Bergen, Bergen, Hordaland, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between teacher autonomy support, students' basic psychological needs satisfaction, and involvement in physical education (PE) with gender specific analyses. Additionally, the study examined the validity of a Norwegian version of the Basic Psychological Needs in PE (BPN-PE) scale. Method: Survey data from the Norwegian 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Results: A structural equation model showed that perceived autonomy support from teacher predicted students' basic needs satisfaction of competence, autonomy and relatedness. Furthermore, satisfaction of competence predicted weekly PE participation and physical activity during PE among boys. The analyses revealed mean level differences with boys scoring higher than girls on all the investigated variables. The findings also supported the validity and reliability of the BPN-PE scale across genders. Discussion/Conclusion: The study adds knowledge to the understanding of the relationship between autonomy support from teachers, students basic need satisfaction and students' involvement in PE.

    Keywords: Basic Psychological Needs in PE (BPN-PE) scale, Participation in physical education, gender differences, physical activity, PE teacher

    Received: 03 Oct 2024; Accepted: 27 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Langoey, Diseth, Wold and Haug. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Amund Langoey, NLA University College, Bergen, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.