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Abstract
This study aims to investigate the unique role of three basic psychological needs in students' well-being, especially engagement and burnout. This study used students from private universities in Yogyakarta, one of the student cities in Indonesia. Using non-random sampling techniques, the researchers collected 404 students as respondents to filled-out the questionnaire. After testing the validity using factor analysis and reliability using Cronbach Alpha, correlation techniques were used as a preliminary analysis to test the relationship between the variables studied. SEM is used to test the model of the relationship between variables. The results indicated that the need for autonomy had a direct effect on academic engagement and academic burnout. The need for competence and relatedness was covariance and influenced the need for autonomy. Academic engagement is also directly influenced by the need for competence. In-depth discussion was presented in the analysis of the results of this study.
Keywords: autonomy; competence; relatedness; burnout; engagement
Introduction
Needs are determinants of individual behavior. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has provided a powerful framework to help demonstrate various processes that influence behavior in a broad context (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991; Gunnell, Crocker, Wilson, Mack, & Zumbo, 2013). SDT postulates three innate psychological needs that can satisfy individuals, namely the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. SDT argues that the basic psychological needs can be identified in all cultures and can interact in different social contexts to produce behavior and human well-being. Nevertheless, there is an assumption that the need for competence and relatedness is cross-cultural, while the need for autonomy still causes controversy (Sheikholeslami & Arab-Moghoeddam, 2010). This is because autonomy represents western individualistic values, so that it is not a basic need for individuals derived from the value of eastern collectivism such as Indonesia. Therefore, research on autonomy still needs to be done on individuals with collectivistic values.
Lately, the basic psychological needs has been shown to play an important role in various fields such as in the workplace (Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 2004; Van den Broeck, Ferris, Chang, & Rosen, 2016), sport (Gagne, Ryan, Bargmann, 2003; Sari, 2015), education (Sulea, van Beek, Sarbescu, Virga, & Schaufeli, 2015; Vansteenkieste, Lens, & Deci, 2006), and related to mental health (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In SDT, satisfaction needs...