Preliminary development of the Adolescent Students' Basic Psychological Needs at School Scale

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to develop and provide evidence for the validity of a new measure of adolescent students' psychological need satisfaction at school, using a sample of Chinese students. We conducted four studies with four independent samples (total n = 1872). The first study aimed to develop items for the new instrument and to ascertain its factorial structure using exploratory factor analysis procedures. The second study aimed to examine the instrument's factorial structure using confirmatory factor analysis procedures as well as to assess its internal consistency reliability, convergent and divergent validity. The third study aimed to assess its measurement invariance across gender and age. The fourth study aimed to test its test–retest reliability over time and predictive validity. These preliminary results showed that the new instrument has promising psychometric properties. The potential contributions of the new instrument for future research and educational practices were discussed.