Mexican Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale in Physical Education

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Sport Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Basic psychological needs are crucial for confidence, motivation, and wellness.
• Frustration of these needs negatively impacts individuals, especially when limited by others.
• Validated Spanish instruments for measuring both satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs in physical education are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• Adapt the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) for the physical education context in Mexico.
• Examine the psychometric properties, structure, and factorial invariance by gender.
• Provide a reliable tool for assessing students' psychological needs in physical education.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 1,470 fifth and sixth-grade students from elementary schools in Monterrey, Mexico.
• The Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) was adapted for the physical education context (BPNSFS-PE).
• Psychometric properties, including reliability, validity, structure, and gender invariance, were analyzed.

Main Results:

• The adapted scale, BPNSFS-PE, demonstrated strong reliability, validity, and a clear factorial structure.
• The scale exhibited strict factorial invariance across genders.
• The results support the use of the BPNSFS-PE in Mexican elementary school physical education settings.

Conclusions:

• The BPNSFS-PE is a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring basic psychological needs satisfaction and frustration in Mexican students.
• This scale can be effectively used to assess students' psychological needs in physical education classes.
• The BPNSFS-PE allows for meaningful comparisons of basic psychological needs between male and female students in physical education.