Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Mediates the Association between Self-Control Skills and Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Although studies have shown that self-control skills (SCSs) are positively linked to both personal and interpersonal outcomes in adolescent students, studies on the putative mechanisms underlying this relationship are scarce. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and previous studies, we theorized that the association between students' SCSs and their subjective well-being (SWB) in school may be mediated by students' perceived satisfaction of their basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. The sample consisted of 1576 Israeli adolescent students (54% girls) in grades 10-12 (mean age 16) enrolled in 20 schools. A mediation model was tested with structural equation modeling and a robust bootstrap method for testing indirect effects, controlling for school-level variance. The findings supported the hypothesized model and a post hoc multi-group comparison analysis yielded gender invariance in the model. The findings suggest that both girls and boys with high SCSs may perceive themselves as having greater needs satisfaction in school and consequently higher school-related SWB. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Keywords: basic needs satisfaction; positivity ratio; school satisfaction; self-control; self-determination theory; subjective well-being.

FIGURE 1

Hypothesized model with perceived needs satisfaction as the mediator between self-control skills and the school related positivity ratio and school satisfaction for the entire sample (N = 1576). Standardized regression weights are presented. Covariates and controlled variables (age and school-level SES) are omitted for clarity. All paths were significant at the p < 0.01 level.

FIGURE 2

Two alternative models with reverse ordering of the variables. The first alternative model is (A) and the second alternative model is (B). Standardized regression weights are presented. Covariates and controlled variables (age and school-level SES) are omitted for clarity (N = 1576). All paths were significant at the p < 0.01 level.