Understanding Adolescents' Need Support, Need Satisfaction, and Health-Related Outcomes: A Self-Determination Health Behavior Perspective.

Changzhou Chen,Tao Zhang,Joonyoung Lee,Xiangli Gu,Sutang Ren,Hongying Wang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17010104

Abstract

School physical education (PE) as an important social context can promote adolescents’ physical health and contributes to their mental health. Guided by the self-determination health behavior model, the study aimed to examine a structural mediation model to investigate the relationships among perceived need support from PE teachers, psychological need satisfaction, and adolescents’ health-related outcomes. Participants were 300 adolescents (Mage = 14.48; 50.3% girls) recruited from five middle schools in Shanghai, China. They completed previously validated questionnaires assessing their perceived need support from PE teachers, psychological need satisfaction, leisure time physical activity (LTPA), and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The hypothesized model demonstrated a good fit (χ2/df = 3.4, p < 0.01; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.09; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.06; Bentler–Bonett Nonnormed Fit Index (NFI)= 0.92; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.94; 90% Confidence Interval (CI) [0.07, 0.11]). The findings indicated that three basic psychological needs can be satisfied by perceived need support from PE teachers, and psychological need satisfaction was positively associated with health-related outcomes such as LTPA and HRQOL. In addition, psychological need satisfaction mediated the relationship between perceived need support from PE teachers and health-related outcomes such as LTPA and HRQOL in the present study. The findings supported the theoretical tenets of the self-determination health behavior model and its generalizability among Chinese adolescent students.

Highlights

It is well documented that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is associated with physical and psychological health benefits [1]
The findings identified that the strongest predictor of students’ leisure time physical activity (LTPA) was competence, followed by autonomy, and relatedness, which differs from the findings of Standage et al [22] but confirms the findings of Ntoumanis et al [41]
The results suggested that social environments created by physical education (PE) teachers can play important roles with respect to students’ three basic psychological needs

Summary

Introduction

It is well documented that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is associated with physical and psychological health benefits [1]. According to the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines, adolescents should engage in at least 60 min of MVPA daily [2]. Among Chinese adolescents, only 29.9% of them engage in the recommended 60 min MVPA per day, more than half of them involve in screen-based entertainments (e.g., playing video or computer games) for three or more hours per day [3,4]. Research noted that the prevalence of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 104; doi:10.3390/ijerph17010104 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion