2022-2023 Grant in Aid of Research
Basic psychological needs satisfaction, autonomy support, and mindsets as predictors of self- regulation in university online learners.
Christine Jin
The purpose of the present study was to test a theoretical model that explains how autonomy support, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and mindsets predict self-regulation among university online learners in the United States. This study used quantitative analysis of non-experimental survey data collected via Alchemer. 1257 people in all completed the survey. The number of complete and valid participant responses was a sample of 404. To assess the data, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed.
The path analysis indices of model one suggests that basic psychological needs satisfaction and mindsets play a predictive role in self-regulation among university online learners whereas autonomy support could not be used as a predictor of self-regulation among university online learners. In addition, the path analysis indices of research model one indicates that autonomy support and basic psychological needs satisfaction could not be used as a predictor of mindsets among university online learners whereas autonomy support could predict basic psychological needs satisfaction as suggested by the theoretical framework. A significant mediator effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction was found between autonomy support and self-regulation. Furthermore, the results of the second research model indicate that the conditional indirect effect of autonomy support on self-regulation via basic psychological needs satisfaction was both significant when the mindsets score was high (which suggests growth mindset orientation) and when the mindsets score was low (which suggests fixed mindset orientation). The difference (though not significant) between these two slopes suggests that the mediation effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction on the relationship between autonomy support and self-regulation was slightly stronger when the mindsets score was higher indicating a growth mindset.