Need Support and Need Thwarting: A Meta-Analysis of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness Supportive and Thwarting Behaviors in Student Populations.

In this meta-analysis, we review the nomological networks of six need-supportive and need-thwarting categories, as defined by self-determination theory (SDT), and as they apply to students in educational contexts. We conducted a synthesis of 8693 correlations from 637 samples (N = 388,912). A total of 72 covariates were examined, resulting in 183 meta-analytic effects reported. Results indicate that teachers and parents who experience psychological need satisfaction and well-being are seen as more supportive. Supportive teacher behaviors correlated positively with a range of desired student outcomes, including performance, engagement, and well-being. Thwarting behaviors tended to display the opposite pattern. Our results are consistent with the theoretical expectations of SDT, yet questions remain concerning the incremental validity of these constructs. We highlight the need for further research on (a) factors that cause teachers to provide support and (b) the specific behaviors within each category to distinguish these categories and increase practical utility.

Interpersonal supports for basic psychological needs and their relations with motivation, well-being, and performance: A meta-analysis.

People's motivational processes, well-being, and performance are likely to be facilitated through the support of others. Self-determination theory argues that interpersonal supports for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are crucial to achieve these outcomes. In the present study, we provide a comprehensive examination of this formulation based on a meta-analytic database consisting of 4,561 effect sizes from 881 independent samples (N = 443,556). Our results indicate that supports for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were strongly positively related with the satisfaction of these basic needs and strongly negatively related to their frustration. Interpersonal supports for basic needs were strongly positively related with subjective well-being and exhibited small to moderate positive associations with performance. Moderation analyses showed general stability of effects across cultures, although correlations of autonomy support to autonomous motivation weakened as a function of individualism. The opposite pattern was observed for the correlation between relatedness support and intrinsic motivation. Some effects also declined as a function of sample age and lag in measurements. We also find that competence- and relatedness-supportive behaviors explained incremental variance in basic need satisfaction even after controlling for the more established effects of autonomy support. In addition, lateral need supports explained incremental variance in basic need satisfaction after controlling for vertical sources of support. In sum, our results are consistent with the premise that to support optimal motivation, well-being, and performance, a broad set of behaviors that nurture all three basic needs, together with different sources of interpersonal support, should be considered to yield the most benefit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Wellbeing Literacy: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Preliminary Empirical Findings from Students, Parents and School Staff.

AIMS: Wellbeing literacy is the intentional use of wellbeing relevant vocabulary, knowledge and language skills to maintain or improve the wellbeing of oneself, others and the world. In this study, we operationalize the human aspects of the concept of wellbeing literacy and empirically test its relationship with wellbeing and illbeing. We also assess its incremental variance in wellbeing and illbeing, after controlling for existing and well-established predictors of these constructs within education settings. METHODS: We developed and empirically tested the Wellbeing literacy 6-item (Well-Lit 6) scale to assess the concept of wellbeing literacy in the education context. The scale was developed based on a working definition of wellbeing literacy, in combination with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)'s definition of literacy. The Well-Lit 6 was administered via a cross-sectional survey to three Australian samples that comprise different elements of Australian education systems: students (N = 1392), parents (N = 584) and school staff (N = 317). RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested the six items of the Well-Lit 6 form an independent construct, empirically distinguishable from other wellbeing-related constructs (e.g., general wellbeing, resilience, and emotion regulation). Convergent analyses showed wellbeing literacy was positively related to wellbeing and negatively related to illbeing. Incremental validity analyses showed wellbeing literacy predicted variance in wellbeing and illbeing after controlling for participant demographics, resilience, and emotion regulation, showing initial evidence of incremental validity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide preliminary evidence that wellbeing literacy is a distinct construct from wellbeing and illbeing, and it also demonstrates significant unique variance in these constructs over and above resilience and emotion regulation. The Well-Lit 6 is a useful provisional measure of wellbeing literacy, although we suggest a fruitful avenue for future research is to develop a more comprehensive scale of wellbeing literacy that denotes specific facets of communication, allowing a fuller exploration wellbeing literacy, its components, and their antecedents and consequences. We offer further recommendations for future research and discuss limitations with our approach.

Contemplative interventions and employee distress: A meta-analysis.

Mindfulness, meditation, and other practices that form contemplative interventions are increasingly offered in workplaces to support employee mental health. Studies have reported benefits across various populations, yet researchers have expressed concerns that adoption of such interventions has outpaced scientific evidence. We reappraise the extant literature by meta-analytically testing the efficacy of contemplative interventions in reducing psychological distress in employees (meta-analysed set: k = 119; N = 6,044). Complementing other reviews, we also examine a range of moderators and the impact of biases that could artificially inflate effect sizes. Results suggested interventions were generally effective in reducing employee distress, yielding small to moderate effects that were sustained at last follow-up. Effects were moderated by the type of contemplative intervention offered and the type of control group utilized. We also found evidence of publication bias, which is likely inflating estimated effects. Uncontrolled single-sample studies were more affected by bias than were large or randomized controlled trial studies. Adjustments for publication bias lowered overall effects. Overall, our review supports the effectiveness of contemplative interventions in reducing employee distress, but there is a need for proactive strategies to mitigate artificially inflated effect sizes to avoid the misapplication of contemplative interventions in work settings.

Measuring Job Crafting Across Cultures: Lessons Learned From Comparing a German and an Australian Sample.

Job crafting refers to the act of employees actively altering work aspects to better suit their values and interests. Slemp and Vella-Brodrick (2013) proposed a Job Crafting Questionnaire (JCQ) in English consisting of three facets: task crafting, cognitive crafting, and relational crafting. This is in line with the original conceptualization of job crafting by Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001). However, there has not yet been an evaluated German translation of this measure. Therefore, this paper aims at evaluating the psychometric properties of scores from a German translation of the JCQ, using the original Australian dataset and a German sample of 482 employees. Our findings showed first evidence for the reliability and validity of the scores. We also extend prior research and include creative self-efficacy in the nomological network of job crafting. Importantly, strong factorial measurement invariance was demonstrated, allowing for comparisons between the job crafting scores of German- and English-speaking samples. Based on this example, we highlight the importance of enriching measurement invariance tests by including other key constructs. Our results suggest that the German JCQ is an acceptable tool for measuring job crafting, as originally conceptualized by Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001).

Leader autonomy support in the workplace: A meta-analytic review.

Leader autonomy support (LAS) refers to a cluster of supervisory behaviors that are theorized to facilitate self-determined motivation in employees, potentially enabling well-being and performance. We report the results of a meta-analysis of perceived LAS in work settings, drawing from a database of 754 correlations across 72 studies (83 unique samples, N = 32,870). Results showed LAS correlated strongly and positively with autonomous work motivation, and was unrelated to controlled work motivation. Correlations became increasingly positive with the more internalized forms of work motivation described by self-determination theory. LAS was positively associated with basic needs, well-being, and positive work behaviors, and was negatively associated with distress. Correlations were not moderated by the source of LAS, country of the sample, publication status, or the operationalization of autonomy support. In addition, a meta-analytic path analysis supported motivational processes that underlie LAS and its consequences in workplaces. Overall, our findings lend support for autonomy support as a leadership approach that is consistent with self-determination and optimal functioning in work settings.