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School-Related Social Support and Adolescents’ School-Related Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction at School

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Grounded in Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT; Deci and Ryan in Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum, New York, 1985; Psychol Inq 11(4):227–268. doi:10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01, 2000; Ryan and Deci in Am Psychol 55(1):68–78. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68, 2000), the present study mainly aimed to (1) test a theoretically-based model proposing that the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs at school mediates the relationship between school-related social support (i.e., teacher support and classmate support) and school-related subjective well-being and (2) explore the invariance of the model across gender and age groups. A total of 1476 Chinese adolescents (males = 712; early adolescents = 676; Mage = 15.40) completed a multi-measure questionnaire tapping the targeted variables. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses. Results indicated that school-related social support (i.e., teacher support and classmate support) related statistically significantly to adolescents’ school-related subjective well-being. Furthermore, a multiple-mediators analysis indicated that autonomy, competence and relatedness needs satisfaction at school partially mediated the relation between teacher support and school-related subjective well-being, and fully mediated the relation between classmate support and school-related subjective well-being. Lastly, the results supported partial invariance of the model with respect to gender and age groups. Limitations of the study are considered and applied considerations to improve adolescents’ school-related subjective well-being are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the “12th Five-Year” Plan of Philosophy and Social Science Development in Guangzhou City (No. 11Y24). This study was also supported by Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, South China Normal University, and Research Center for Crisis Intervention and Psychological Service of Guangdong Province, South China Normal University. We gratefully acknowledge the reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of schools, teaching staff and students who participated in this study.

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Tian, L., Tian, Q. & Huebner, E.S. School-Related Social Support and Adolescents’ School-Related Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction at School. Soc Indic Res 128, 105–129 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1021-7

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