Perceived Mattering and Role Stress as Antecedents to Physical Education Teachers' Psychological Need Satisfaction

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Wellness, Burnout, and Teaching: Relations to Motivation in Academic Contexts

Abstract

Notwithstanding recent surging interest in motivation within physical education (PE), little is known about PE teacher motivation. Guided by self-determination theory, this study examined the relationships between perceived mattering, three forms of role stress, and psychological need satisfaction in 477 PE teachers in America. A structural equation model generated from survey data broadly supported the hypotheses that role stress would negatively predict psychological need satisfaction and that perceived mattering would positively psychological need satisfaction both directly and indirectly through attenuating the effects of role stress. In the interest of fostering autonomous forms of teaching motivation through psychological need satisfaction, these findings support calls for identifying means of enhancing PE teachers' perceptions of mattering and reducing role stress.

Authors

• Nicholas Washburn, Western Washington University

• Kevin Andrew R. Richards, University of Alabama

• Oleg A Sinelnikov, University of Alabama