Should We Be Looking at the Forest or the Trees? Overall Psychological Need Satisfaction and Individual Needs as Predictors of Physical Activity

The objectives of this study were to examine whether (a) measures designed to assess satisfaction of competence, autonomy, and relatedness needs in physical activity contexts can represent both general and specific needs satisfaction and (b) the specific needs are associated with concurrent moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) participation (Time 1) and MVPA participation 4 months later (Time 2), beyond general psychological need satisfaction (PNS). Data from 544 adolescents (M-age = 14.1 years, SD = 0.6) were analyzed. A bifactor model specifying four factors (i.e., one general PNS and three specific needs) provided a good fit to the data. Extending the model to predict Time 1 and Time 2 MVPA participation also provided a good fit to the data. General PNS and specific needs had unique and empirically distinguishable associations with MVPA participation. The bifactor operationalization of PNS provides a framework to delineate common and distinctive antecedents and outcomes of general PNS and specific needs.