The Role of Basic Need Satisfaction for Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning During COVID-19
A Longitudinal Study
Abstract
Abstract: Higher education institutions in Austria switched to emergency distance learning in March 2020 to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Due to the sudden change, students and instructors scarcely had time to adjust to the new demands. Initial cross-sectional studies pointed to the risks of emergency distance learning for students’ intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, and learning behavior. We investigated the longitudinal effects between the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and social relatedness), intrinsic motivation, and self-regulated learning, applying a cross-lagged panel model. A sample of N = 3,286 students answered four online questionnaires between April 2020 and July 2021. All measured constructs remained stable during that time span. The satisfaction of the basic needs was cross-sectionally related to intrinsic motivation. We found no cross-lagged effects on intrinsic motivation. Self-regulated learning showed small but significant cross-lagged positive effects on intrinsic motivation at all time points. Implications and future research perspectives are discussed.
References
2011). Self-determination theory and diminished functioning: The role of interpersonal control and psychological need thwarting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(11), 1459–1473. 10.1177/0146167211413125
(2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1–126. 10.5281/zenodo.3878572
(2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. The Internet and Higher Education, 27, 1–13. 10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.04.007
(2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.
(2021). Pathways to student motivation: A meta-analysis of antecedents of autonomous and controlled motivations. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), Article
(003465432110424 . 10.3102/003465432110424262022). Die Auswirkungen von COVID-19 auf die Lehre an Österreichs Hochschulen. Erste empirische Evidenzen und deren systematische Reflexion. Zeitschrift für Hochschulrecht Hochschulmanagement und Hochschulpolitik zfhr, 21(2), Article
(55 . 10.33196/zfhr2022020055012019). Satisfaction of basic psychological needs leads to better academic performance via increased psychological capital: A three-wave longitudinal study among high school students. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article
(2113 . 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.021132007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(3), 464–504. 10.1080/10705510701301834
(2020). Trajectories of motivation and their academic correlates over the first year of college. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 63, Article
(101907 . 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.1019072004). My current thoughts on coefficient alpha and successor procedures. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64(3), 391–418. 10.1177/0013164404266386
(2000). The “What” and “Why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. 10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01
(2021). The impact of COVID-19 on higher education: A review of emerging evidence (NESET Report). Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/069216
(2019). Basic psychological need satisfaction toward learning: A longitudinal test of mediation using bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 354–372. 10.1037/edu0000283
(2016). Effect size guidelines for individual differences researchers. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 74–78. 10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.069
(2022). Do self-regulated learning practices and intervention mitigate the impact of academic challenges and COVID-19 distress on academic performance during online learning? Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article
(813529 . 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.8135292018). The validation of the German basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration scale in the context of mental health. European Journal of Health Psychology, 25(4), 119–132. 10.1027/2512-8442/a000017
(2022). This weird time we’re in”: How a sudden change to remote education impacted college students’ self-regulated learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 54(sup1), S203–S218. 10.1080/15391523.2021.1916414
(2021). Development of self-regulated learning: A longitudinal study on academic performance in undergraduate science. Research in Science & Technological Education, 1–25. 10.1080/02635143.2021.1997978
(2021). Higher education in times of COVID-19: University students’ basic need satisfaction, self-regulated learning, and well-being. AERA Open, 7, Article
(233285842110031 . 10.1177/233285842110031642019). Reexamining the impact of self-determination theory on learning outcomes in the online learning environment. Education and Information Technologies, 24(3), 2159–2174. 10.1007/s10639-019-09863-w
(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. 10.1080/10705519909540118
(2022). Motivational development in times of campus closure: Longitudinal trends in undergraduate students’ need satisfaction and intrinsic learning motivation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(4), 1582–1596. 10.1111/bjep.12522
(2023). Motivational determinants of students’ academic functioning: The role of autonomy-support, autonomous motivation, and perceived competence. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 67(2), 194–211. 10.1080/00313831.2021.1990125
(2020). The mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and academic engagement in agriculture students. Teaching in Higher Education, 25(8), 959–975. 10.1080/13562517.2019.1623775
(2017). Self-regulated learning strategies predict learner behavior and goal attainment in Massive Open Online Courses. Computers & Education, 104, 18–33. 10.1016/j.compedu.2016.10.001
(2018). Kurz und knapp – die Kurzskala des Fragebogens „Lernstrategien im Studium” (LIST). Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 32(4), 249–259. 10.1024/1010-0652/a000230
(2012). Procrastination in a distance university setting. Distance Education, 33(3), 295–310. 10.1080/01587919.2012.723165
(2013). How motivation affects academic performance: A structural equation modelling analysis. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 18(1), 57–69. 10.1007/s10459-012-9354-3
(1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(404), 1198–1202. 10.1080/01621459.1988.10478722
(2007). New developments in latent variable panel analyses of longitudinal data. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31(4), 357–365. 10.1177/0165025407077757
(2007). Umgang mit fehlenden Werten in der psychologischen Forschung. Psychologische Rundschau, 58(2), 103–117. 10.1026/0033-3042.58.2.103
(2018). Relations between psychological needs satisfaction, motivation, and self-regulated learning strategies in medical residents: A cross-sectional study [version 1]. MedEdPublish, 7(87). 10.15694/mep.2018.0000087.1
(2005). Continuity of motivation in higher education: A three-year follow-up study. Review of Psychology, 12(1), 31–43
(2010). The reciprocal relationship between motivation and self-regulation: A longitudinal study on academic performance. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(6), 682–686. 10.1016/j.lindif.2010.09.010
(2019). The directional links between students’ academic motivation and social integration during the first year of higher education. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 34(1), 67–86. 10.1007/s10212-017-0365-6
(2021). A meta-analysis of self-determination theory-informed intervention studies in the health domain: Effects on motivation, health behavior, physical, and psychological health. Health Psychology Review, 15(2), 214–244. 10.1080/17437199.2020.1718529
(2012). The continuity of college students’ autonomous learning motivation and its predictors: A three-year longitudinal study. Learning and Individual Differences, 22(1), 92–99. 10.1016/j.lindif.2011.11.010
(2022). Lernen unter COVID-19 Bedingungen: Zur Situation der Studierenden in Österreich. In H. AngenentJ. PetriT. Zimenkova (Eds.), Bildungsforschung (1. Aufl., Bd. 9, S. 200–215). transcript Verlag. 10.14361/9783839459843-013
(2023). Supplementary materials to “The role of basic need satisfaction for motivation and self-regulated learning during COVID-19: A longitudinal study”. 10.17605/OSF.IO/KX4WU
(2021). Distance learning in higher education during COVID-19: The role of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation for persistence and procrastination–a multi-country study. PLoS ONE, 16(10), Article
(e0257346 . 10.1371/journal.pone.02573462021). The co-occurrence of satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs and its relationship with exercisers’ motivation. The Journal of Psychology, 155(2), 165–185. 10.1080/00223980.2020.1862738
(2014). Assessing the hypothesis of measurement invariance in the context of large-scale international surveys. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 74(1), 31–57. 10.1177/0013164413498257
(2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, Article
(101860 . 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.1018602019). Reflections on self-determination theory as an organizing framework for personality psychology: Interfaces, integrations, issues, and unfinished business. Journal of Personality, 87(1), 115–145. 10.1111/jopy.12440
(1994). Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. In A. von EyeC. C. Clogg (Eds.), Latent variables analysis: Applications for developmental research (pp. 399–419). Sage Publications
(2021). Learning conditions during COVID-19 Students (SUF edition) [Data set]. AUSSDA. 10.11587/XIU3TX
(2012). Autoregressive and cross-lagged panel analysis for longitudinal data. In B. LaursenT. D. LittleN. A. Card (Eds.), Handbook of developmental research methods (pp. 265–278). The Guilford Press.
(2018). Entwicklung und Validierung der Skalen zur motivationalen Regulation beim Lernen im Studium (SMR-LS). Diagnostica, 64(3), 145–155. 10.1026/0012-1924/a000201
(2019). The influence of the trainer on the motivation and resilience of sportspeople: A study from the perspective of self-determination theory. PLoS ONE, 14(8), Article
(e0221461 . 10.1371/journal.pone.02214612016). A review of self-determination theory’s basic psychological needs at work. Journal of Management, 42(5), 1195–1229. 10.1177/0149206316632058
(2020). Basic psychological need theory: Advancements, critical themes, and future directions. Motivation and Emotion, 44(1), 1–31. 10.1007/s11031-019-09818-1
(2021). Measuring the impact of COVID-19 induced campus closure on student self-regulated learning in physics online learning modules. LAK21: 11th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (pp.110–120). 10.1145/3448139.3448150
(2000). Chapter 2—Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. BoekaertsP. R. PintrichM. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 13–39). Academic Press. 10.1016/B978-012109890-2/50031-7
(