Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction in Leisure Activities and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction
Type
Peer reviewed; Journal articlePeer reviewed
publishedVersion
Date
2012-12
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Participation in leisure activities is an important
arena for the positive psychological development of adolescents.
The present study set out to examine the relationship
between adolescents’ satisfaction of the psychological
needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy in their
participation in leisure activities and their perceived life
satisfaction. The aim was to identify the extent to which
satisfaction of the three needs explained the relationship
between participation in leisure activities and life satisfaction.
These proposed mechanisms were based on previous
empirical work and the theoretical frameworks of selfdetermination
theory, and were tested in a nationally representative
sample of Norwegian adolescents (N = 3,273)
aged 15 and 16 years (51.8 %boys). The structural equation
analysis showed that competence and relatedness satisfaction
fully mediated the association between participation in
activities and life satisfaction. Autonomy satisfaction had a
direct positive effect on life satisfaction but did not show
any mediation effect. The positive processes of psychological
need satisfaction, and especially the need for competence
and relatedness, experienced in the leisure activity
domain thus seem to be beneficial for adolescents’ wellbeing.
These findings add to previous research investigating
the positive impact of need satisfaction in other important
domains in the lives of children and adolescents
Publisher
Springer USCollections
The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com