The role of weekly need-based experiences and self-criticism in predicting weekly academic (mal)adjustment

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the role of both adolescents' weekly experiences of psychological need satisfaction and frustration and adolescents' self-criticism in their weekly variation in academic adjustment. A sample of 82 adolescents (mean age = 12.45 years; 42% female) provided weekly assessments of the psychological needs and academic adjustment during three consecutive weeks. Multilevel analyses indicated that weekly variation in need satisfaction related positively to weekly variation in positive affect, engagement, and autonomous motivation, while weekly variation in need frustration related positively to weekly variation in negative affect, disaffection, and controlled motivation. Self-criticism was negatively related to positive affect and autonomous motivation and positively to disaffection and controlled motivation. Further, need-based experiences played a mediating role in the relation between self-criticism and academic (mal)adjustment at the level of between-person differences. Moderation analyses did not reveal any evidence for self-criticism as a potentially amplifying factor in the relation between need-based experiences and academic (mal)adjustment. These findings point to the importance of need-based experiences in explaining the impact of self-criticism on academic (mal)adjustment.