Links between Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and School Adjustment: A Person-Oriented Approach

IntroductionOne of the major contexts in the life of adolescents is school. The subjective experience in school relates significantly to adolescents' overall life quality (Huebner & Gilman, 2006). Over the past few decades, selfdetermination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1991, 2000) has been very useful for understanding students' optimal functioning in school by studying factors that lead to positive learning outcomes and subjective well-being. Basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) is a sub-theory of SDT that proposes the existence of three inherent, universal basic psychological needs that have to be satisfied in order to achieve optimal functioning and growth (Deci & Ryan, 2000). These needs are the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In educational settings, the need for autonomy can be defined as the experience of choice and psychological freedom in study activities. The need for competence refers to having opportunities to develop and express individual capabilities as well as to interact effectively with the school environment. The need for relatedness concerns a sense of connection with teachers and classmates (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Sierens, Vansteenkiste, Gossens, Soenens, & Dochy, 2009; Tian, Han & Huebner, 2014). The satisfaction of these needs is context depended. Students are likely to thrive and to develop intrinsic motivation in settings that fit well with their psychological needs (Deci & Ryan, 2000). The body of research based on SDT perspective has shown, that satisfaction of basic psychological needs contributes to students' engagement (Ryan & Deci, 2000), persistence in school (Ratelle, Larose, Guay, & Senecal, 2005) and academic achievement (Ratelle, Guay, Vallerand, Larose, & Senecal,2007; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Wetzel, Barry, & Caldwell, 2004). Therefore, it is suggested that three basic psychological needs should be satisfied in the school environment to promote students' academic achievements and overall well-being (Tian et al., 2014). Large number SDT academic studies have mostly analyzed the effects of single basic needs on particular outcome variables. Besides, most of the studies focus on the need for autonomy and competence, while little attention has been dedicated to the understanding of relatedness as learning environment dimension (Maulana, Opdenakker, Stroet, Bosker, & 2013). The variableoriented approach used in these studies neglects the relation between basic needs, e.g., whether all three basic needs are satisfied simultaneously, but to varying extents (Esdar, Gorges, & Wild, 2015). SDT posits that three basic needs are not opposite or separate but rather interrelated and complimentary (Ryan & Deci, 2000). This interrelatedness may occur because need supportive behavior may satisfy more than one need (Reeve, 2012; Vansteenkiste, Niemiec, & Soenens, 2010). Therefore, it becomes crucial to understand whether supporting all of those needs is beneficial for school adjustment.A person-oriented approach allows identifying various need satisfaction profiles that are not distinguished a priori established categories using median split but rather naturally occurring among students. Some studies have begun to examine need satisfaction profiles. Ferrand, Martinent, and Durnaz (2014) identified two need satisfaction profiles in an elderly sample: one profile with a high satisfaction and another profile with a low satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs. Esdar et al. (2015) identified four profiles of basic psychological needs satisfaction in junior academics' sample. Two profiles were similar to Ferrand et al. (2014) results, and another two were characterized by higher level of satisfaction of either need for autonomy or need for competence. The results of this research have shown that satisfaction of all three needs is necessary for optimal functioning in specific contexts. Thus it will be beneficial to identify needs' satisfaction profiles in school settings and relate them to school adjustment. …