Student Physical Education Teachers’ Well-Being: Contribution of Basic Psychological Needs

Abstract

This study adopted Self-Determination Theory tenets and aimed to explore whether student physical education (PE) teachers’ satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs independently predicts well-being. 267 Turkish student PE teachers were recruited for the study. Two stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed in which each outcome was regressed on the three psychological need measures. The results confirmed SDT’s universality; satisfactions of all three needs were positively correlated with subjective well-being and negatively correlated with loneliness. Relatedness was the strongest predictor of student teachers’ well-being whereas autonomy was the strongest predictor of their loneliness. Results are consistent with the SDT tenets which claims satisfactions of autonomy, competence and relatedness contribute to individuals’ well-being. The practical implications of this study concerns teacher education programs which should be regulated to inform student teachers about their own psychological needs and well-being and their students’ psychological needs and well-being in the future.