Relationships between needs satisfaction and the quality of motivation with academic engagement in pre-service physical education teachers

Academic engagement has been identified as a key determinant in the learning process. Although research on initial teacher education has focused on understanding the mechanism that can foster strong academic engagement, little is known about the roles that basic psychological need satisfaction and academic motivation may perform. The objective of this research was to examine the predictive relationships between basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness, and novelty) and academic engagement, considering the role of academic motivation. A cross-sectional and non-randomized design was used. A total of 920 students (61.8% male; Mage = 24.73; SD age =5.34) participated from different universities. The results from structural equation modelling revealed that competence and novelty satisfaction significantly and positively predicted academic engagement. Autonomous motivation significantly mediated the association of competence and autonomy satisfaction with academic engagement. This research underscores the importance of considering competence and autonomy satisfaction as facilitators of autonomous motivation and academic engagement in pre-service teachers.