Teachers’ Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Thwarting: Can They Explain Students’ Behavioural Engagement in Physical Education? A Multi-Level Analysis

Students’ engagement in Physical Education has been linked to several adaptive consequences. Even though the existing literature suggests that perceived autonomy support can predict engagement, research is scarce on how teachers’ antecedents might influence this behavioural outcome. This study sought to compare the influence of teachers’ basic psychological needs’ satisfaction and basic psychological needs’ thwarting on students’ behavioural engagement and on the relationship between perceived autonomy-support and the students’ behavioural engagement. The sample included 29 Physical Education teachers and 644 students who were taught by the participants teachers. Data were collected using both paper and online surveys and they were analysed using multilevel modelling techniques. The results revealed that, while teachers’ autonomy satisfaction might be significant in the explanation of students’ engagement (β = 0.33, p < 0.01), it seems that needs thwarting could be a better predictor of this outcome (β autonomy thwarting = −0.17, p < 0.01; β competence thwarting = −0.06, p < 0.05). These findings suggest the impact of certain external pressures on teachers’ practices which, in turn, might affect students’ behavioural outcomes.