Journal of Happiness Studies

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-00072-9

RESEARCH PAPER

A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The

Role of Need Satisfaction and Need Frustration Across
Gender, Age, and Socioeconomic Status

Ana Rodríguez‑Meirinhos1   · Lucía Antolín‑Suárez1 · Katrijn Brenning2 ·

Maarten Vansteenkiste2 · Alfredo Oliva1

© Springer Nature B.V. 2019

Abstract
A central tenet of Self-Determination Theory is that the basic psychological needs for
autonomy, relatedness, and competence represent universal psychological nutriments for
adolescents’ functioning. This study contributed to the investigation of this universality
claim by examining whether the satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs
would relate, respectively, to adolescents’ wellbeing and psychological maladjustment
across gender, age, and socioeconomic status (SES). Having gathered data in a large sam-
ple of Spanish adolescents (N = 1047; M = 14.68, SD = 1.53), through a series of confirma-
tory factor analyses we began by providing validity evidence for the Spanish child-adapted
version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS;
Chen et al. in Mot Emot 39:216–236, 2015b. https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1103​1-014-9450-1).
A 6-first-order factor model, distinguishing the satisfaction and frustration of each of the
three needs, better represented the data. In addition, evidence for measurement and struc-
tural invariance of the BPNSFS-child version across the three sociodemographic character-
istics was largely achieved. Structural equation models further revealed that need satisfac-
tion contributed uniquely to well-being, whereas need frustration contributed uniquely to
adolescents’ psychological adjustment problems. Further, multigroup comparisons gener-
ally supported invariant patterns of relations across gender, age, and SES groups. Results
are discussed in light of the generalizability of need-based dynamics among adolescents.

Keywords  Self-Determination Theory · Psychological needs · Universality · Well-being ·

Maladjustment · Adolescence

* Ana Rodríguez‑Meirinhos
anameirinhos@us.es
1
Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de Sevilla, Camilo José
Cela s/n, 41018 Seville, Spain
2
Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Henri
Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

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 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

1 Introduction

Adolescence is a developmental period marked by both risk and opportunity (Steinberg

2014): adolescents display a heightened vulnerability for psychological adjustment prob-
lems and even psychopathology, while at the same time exhibiting increasing agency and
the capacity to uplift their own growth and thriving (Soenens et al. 2019). The reason why
adolescence is marked by such heterogeneity in (mal)adjustment is because adolescents
are required to handle various normative psychological changes and developmental tasks,
with some being successful in doing so and others struggling (Havighurst 1972; Lerner
and Steinberg 2004). Specifically, adolescents pursue greater autonomy and self-reliance
(Soenens et al. 2018), thereby aiming for greater participation in decision making and set-
ting goals that are concordant with their crystallizing interests, preferences, and values
(Daddis 2011). This process of autonomy development equally requires them to redefine
their social roles, that is, the way they relate to peers and adults. Peers become increasingly
relevant during adolescence, while, within their families, adolescents move towards greater
symmetry in the relationship with their parents (Smetana 2011). Among younger adoles-
cents, these changes also coincide with an important school transition (i.e., from elemen-
tary school to middle or high school), which typically involves increasing demands.
Although most adolescents cope successfully with the developmental demands of this
period and develop in healthy ways (i.e., period of opportunities), adolescence is also a
critical developmental period for the onset of adjustment problems (i.e., period of risks;
Kessler et al. 2012). Thus, identifying factors that could both facilitate and hamper psycho-
logical well-being is of crucial relevance (Dodge and Pettit 2003). To achieve this aim, the
present study draws on Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci 2000), a broad
theory of human motivation and social development according to which adaptive and mal-
adaptive functioning can be accounted for by a single unifying principle: the satisfaction
and frustration of three inherent basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and
competence (Vansteenkiste and Ryan 2013). The SDT-framework is ideally suited to exam-
ine adolescents’ well-being and psychological maladjustment as some of the most impor-
tant developmental tasks of adolescence (i.e., pursue greater autonomy, redefine social
roles, and increasing school demands) can be related to each of the three-identified basic
psychological needs.
Herein, this study aims to test the robustness of a model in which need-based dynam-
ics of satisfaction and frustration may help to understand adolescents’ outcomes of well-
being and psychological adjustment problems across gender, age, and socioeconomic sta-
tus (SES).

1.1 Psychological Needs: A Unifying Principle

Within SDT and, more specifically within Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT;
Ryan and Deci 2017; Vansteenkiste et  al. 2010), it is posited that optimal psychological
development is facilitated by the satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy,
relatedness, and competence (Vansteenkiste and Ryan 2013). Deci and Ryan (2000, p. 229)
define basic psychological needs as “innate psychological nutriments that are essential for
on-going psychological growth, integrity and well-being”. The need for autonomy involves
experiencing a sense of volition, self-endorsement, and congruence in one’s acting, think-
ing, and feeling. The need for relatedness refers to experiencing a sense of belonging and

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A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

reciprocal closeness in interpersonal relationships. Finally, the need for competence entails
feeling a sense of mastery and effectiveness in pursuing one’s goals, developing one’s
skills, and coping with daily challenges.
A wealth of studies has documented meaningful associations between need satisfaction
and a number of adaptive psychological outcomes (for an overview see Ryan and Deci
2017). As such, when psychological needs are satisfied, people report feeling more vital-
ized and energetic (e.g., Chen et  al. 2015b), being more satisfied with their lives (e.g.,
DeHaan et al. 2016) and themselves (e.g., Ümmet 2015), and experiencing greater positive
affect (e.g., Sheldon et al. 2001), among other benefits.
Yet, SDT also recognizes that individuals are vulnerable to passivity and fragmented
functioning (i.e., maladaptive and even pathological patterns) when basic psychological
needs are thwarted (Ryan et al. 2016). Autonomy frustration occurs when people experi-
ence their own thoughts, behaviors, or feelings as pressuring, alienating, and conflicted.
Relatedness frustration refers to feeling socially rejected or disconnected from others.
Finally, competence frustration entails experiences of failure and inadequacy in accom-
plishing daily tasks and achieving desired outcomes.
Within SDT, need frustration is not conceptually equivalent to the mere lack of need
satisfaction (Bartholomew et al. 2011). Vansteenkiste and Ryan (2013) stated that there is
an asymmetrical association between both, such that low need satisfaction does not neces-
sarily come with high need frustration, while high need frustration, by definition, entails
low need satisfaction. Besides, the absence of need frustration does not guarantee its sat-
isfaction to occurs. Accordingly, recent research has shown that the additional assessment
of need frustration, above and beyond need satisfaction, allows one to better account for
various adverse mental health consequences such as negative affect and depression (e.g.,
Brenning and Soenens 2017; Verstuyf et al. 2013), symptoms of anxiety and somatization
(e.g., Cordeiro et al. 2016), poor sleep (e.g., Campbell et al. 2017), and symptoms of eating
pathology (e.g., Bartholomew et al. 2011; Boone et al. 2014). Such findings were obtained
in cross-sectional, diary (Verstuyf et al. 2013), and longitudinal (Boone et al. 2014) studies.
Interestingly, because need frustration could account for the observed covariance between
changes in depressive symptoms as well as changes in eating pathology over a 6-month
period among adolescents, Campbell et al. (2018) proposed need frustration to represent
a transdiagnostic risk factor accounting for the co-evolution of diverse types of problem
behaviors. That is, need frustration would be the common risk factor underlying diverse
psychopathological problems.
In addition to the proposition that basic psychological needs are robustly related to a
host of adaptive and maladaptive outcomes, SDT holds the assumption that these effects
apply universally. This is because basic psychological needs are considered universal nutri-
ents for growth rather than representing culture or personality-specific well-being enhanc-
ers. As such, a number of multi-country studies evidenced that need satisfaction fosters
well-being whereas need frustration contributes to ill-being, independent of participants’
cultural background (e.g., Chen et al. 2015b; Chirkow et al. 2003; Church et al. 2012).

1.2 Underexamined Issues

Although the study of need-based dynamics has exponentially grown over the years, at
least two issues remain under-examined. First, while most research on psychological
need satisfaction and recent developments on need frustration have involved univer-
sity students (e.g., Chen et al. 2015b; Costa et al. 2015) or adults (e.g., Brenning et al.

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 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

2018), studies on early and middle adolescents have lagged behind. This is unfortunate
as the study of all three needs may be critical during adolescence. To illustrate, the
movement towards greater independence and self-sufficiency is a key developmental
task of adolescence (Steinberg and Morris 2001) that relates to the basic psychologi-
cal need for autonomy. Further, adolescence is also a time of great transformations
in social relations, thereby potentially impacting on adolescents’ need for relatedness.
Relative to childhood, parent–child conflict increases and new and more complex rela-
tions with peers emerge (Brown and Larson 2009). Finally, the need for competence
may be potentially threatened in light of the multiple school demands and evaluations
of performance that boys and girls confront during this period (Lerner and Steinberg
2004). Thus, the close link between the developmental tasks of adolescence and the
three basic psychological needs underscores the critical relevance of studying the
dynamics of need satisfaction and frustration in relation to psychological well-being
and maladjustment during adolescence. Previous research with adolescents in educa-
tional and leisure settings showed that the more satisfied adolescents were in these
contexts, the greater life satisfaction and positive affect they reported (e.g., Ahmad
et  al. 2013; Leversen et  al. 2014; Orkibi and Ronen 2017; Sheldon et  al. 2009; Tian
et  al. 2014; Véronneau et  al. 2005). Similarly, Milyavskaya et  al. (2009) found that
when adolescents’ need satisfaction was better balanced across school, home, friends,
and part-time jobs, they reported higher well-being and better school adjustment. Even
though these studies supported the beneficial role of need satisfaction in adolescence,
they have solely focused on need satisfaction in context-specific situations, thereby
failing to simultaneously address the role of need satisfaction and need frustration in
adolescents’ life in general.
A second issue that has received little systematic research attention is the robust-
ness of need-based dynamics. Studies addressing SDT’s universality claim have pri-
marily focused on its cross-cultural generalizability. However, this assertion should not
only be addressed across multiple cultures, but also across different sociodemographic
characteristics. For instance, although it is expected that the benefits of need satisfac-
tion and the costs of need frustration would apply across age, gender, and SES, the
robustness of these effects has not been directly examined. Nonetheless, indirect sup-
port for the claim that basic psychological needs are equally important across the lifes-
pan can be drawn from the comparison of studies performed in different age samples
which showed similar results regarding the beneficial and detrimental effects of need
satisfaction and need frustration (e.g., Mackenzie et al. 2017). As for gender, histori-
cally some scholars have claimed that autonomy and self-reliance are more primary
concerns for males, while relatedness is a more primary concern for females (Jordan
1991). Although both genders may be different to the degree that they are attentive
and sensitive to dynamics of autonomy, relatedness, or competence, the critical point
within BPNT is that, once satisfied, both genders would thrive. Indeed, based on previ-
ous studies, healthy and deeply satisfying peer and romantic relationships require both
boys’ and girls’ volitional functioning to be supported (Deci et  al. 2006; Rudy et  al.
2007; Ryan and Deci 2017). In line with this argument are also the studies showing
the costs of denying women’s personal autonomy (e.g., Van Bergen and Saharso 2016).
Regarding the potential moderating role of individuals’ SES, Chen et  al. (2015a)
reported that Chinese adults suffering from poverty also benefited from the satisfaction
of their basic psychological needs. However, this study was based on elevated sub-
jective financial insecurity, so it would remain novel to examine whether need-based
experiences would depend upon objective SES.

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A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

1.3 The Present Study

Aligned with SDT, the first aim of the present study was to examine the link between sat-
isfaction and frustration of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and
relatedness and adolescents’ well-being and psychological maladjustment. In line with
emerging findings in the literature, overall need satisfaction was expected to be primar-
ily associated with well-being (positive affect and life satisfaction), whereas overall need
frustration was expected to be primarily related to adolescents’ adjustment problems (inter-
nalizing, externalizing, and other problems). After having examined the differential con-
tribution of a composite score of need satisfaction and need frustration, the present study
explored the unique role of the satisfaction and frustration of the three separate needs,
thereby expecting each of them to be uniquely related to the outcomes.
To provide additional support for the robustness of these associations, the second aim
was to investigate whether the expected relations between needs satisfaction and well-being
and between needs frustration and maladjustment would be invariant across three impor-
tant sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, and SES). Taking into account the
universality of the basic psychological needs, we anticipated invariant patterns of relations.
Apart from these two primary aims, a secondary aim was to provide evidence for the
validity of a child-adapted version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Need
Frustration Scale (BPNSFS; Chen et  al. 2015b). The BPNSFS is the unique and most
widely used tool that concomitantly taps into both satisfaction and frustration components
of SDT’s needs. It has demonstrated to be cross-culturally invariant and has been success-
fully validated in several languages (e.g., Portuguese and Italian; Cordeiro et  al. 2016;
Costa et al. 2017). However, despite the evidence regarding the validity and reliability of
the scale in adult samples, convincing validity information concerning the adequacy of
the BPNSFS-child version is still lacking. Given the lack of prior validity information, we
examined the dimensionality, internal consistence, and measurement and structural invari-
ance of the scale.

2 Method

2.1 Participants and Procedure

The sample comprised of 1047 adolescents (53% girls), who ranged in age between 12 and
17 (M = 14.68, SD = 1.53). The distribution of gender did not differ between the younger
and the older group: 51.2% girls in the early adolescents group (12–14 years of age) and
54.4% girls in the middle adolescents group (15–17  years of age), χ2(1) = 1.09, p > .05.
Most participants were of Spanish nationality (97.7%) and all of them were Spanish-speak-
ing. In terms of family structure, most of them came from two-parent families (84.5%) or
from one-parent families (13.5%) and only a minority lived with other relatives (1.2%) or
in institutions (.3%).
Participants were recruited from 8 high schools located in the southern regions of Spain
in which they followed secondary education (78.4%), post-secondary education (19.7%),
or a vocational track (.9%). The schools were selected using a quota sampling taking into
account the size of the municipality (< 30.000 small municipalities and ≥ 30.000 large
municipalities according to the 2016 Municipal Register of Inhabitants) and the annual

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 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

average per capita income of the school area (< 21.966 € for low income areas and ≥ 21.966
for higher income areas). Two schools were selected within each stratum. Thus, the sample
included individuals living in well-developed and less-developed areas.
Approval to conduct this study was obtained by the Biomedical Research Ethics
Review Board of Andalucia (Spain). Once schools have confirmed their participation,
active informed consent was obtained from adolescents and passive from parents. Parents
received a letter about the purpose, method, and ethics of the study at least 10 days before
data collection.
Data were gathered during regular class periods. Participation was voluntary. Research
assistants distributed the questionnaires in classroom settings, explained the aims of the
survey, and assisted participants if needed. Prior to filling out the questionnaires, partici-
pants were informed about the confidentiality and anonymity of the data and the possibility
to abandon the study at any time.

2.2 Measures

2.2.1 SES

Participants’ SES was measured using the Family Affluence Scale (FASII; Boyce et  al.
2006). The FASII is a brief measure of adolescents’ family wealth, which was developed in
the context of the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Study (HBSC).
It comprises four items regarding family car ownership, bedroom occupancy, holidays, and
home computers. In accordance with previous HBSC studies, the two highest response cat-
egories of the items three and four (holidays and home computers) were combined and a
composite FAS score was computed by summing the responses to these four items rang-
ing from 0 to 7. This composite score was subsequently recoded into a three-point ordinal
score of low (0–3), middle (4–5), and high (6–7) SES groups (see Currie et al. 2008).

2.2.2 Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration

The BPNSFS-child version (Chen et  al. 2015b; Van der Kaap-Deeder et  al. 2015) was
used to assess the satisfaction and frustration of adolescents’ basic psychological needs for
autonomy, relatedness, and competence. This child version, available in Dutch and English,
was translated from English into Spanish by two Spanish-speaking researchers who were
also fluent in English. The Spanish adult version was considered as a reference for this
translation. To verify the accuracy of the translated version, an independent scholar trained
in both languages translated the resulting items back into English. Discrepancies between
the original and translated version were discussed to reach an agreement on the final word-
ing. The BPNSFS-child version consists of 24 items, eight items for each need; four of
which tapping into satisfaction of autonomy (i.e., “I feel free to choose which activities
I do”), relatedness (i.e., “The people that I like, also like me”), and competence (i.e., “I
can do things well”) and the other four tapping into frustration of autonomy (i.e., “I feel
pressured to do too many things”), relatedness (i.e., “I feel excluded from the group I want
to be a part of”), and competence (i.e., “I often have doubts about whether I’m good at
things”). Respondents rated each item on a 5 point-Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely
untrue) to 5 (completely true).

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A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

2.2.3 Psychological Well‑Being

Two well-being indicators were used, that is, life satisfaction and positive affect. Life sat-
isfaction was measured with the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al.
1985; Spanish translation and validation by Atienza et al. 2000). A sample item reads “I am
satisfied with my life”. Items were rated on a 7 point-Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha was .86. Positive affect, deemed as a
state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, was measured with
the 10-item positive affect scale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS;
Watson et al. 1988; Spanish validation by López-Gómez et al. 2015). Each item names a
positive emotion (e.g., “interested”) and was rated on a 5 point-Likert scale, ranging from 1
(very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely) to indicate the extent to which participants have
felt the described affect over the past week. Cronbach’s alpha was .86.

2.2.4 Psychological Maladjustment

Adolescents’ psychological adjustment problems were assessed with the Youth Self-Report
(YSR; Achenbach and Rescorla 2001), a comprehensive measure of emotional and behav-
ioral problems intended for adolescents (age 11–18). The YSR includes 112 items com-
prising three broad-band subscales: internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety and depression,
withdrawal, and somatization), externalizing problems (i.e., aggressive and rule-breaking
behavior), and other problems (i.e., social problems, thought-related problems, and atten-
tion problems). Items were rated on a 3 point-Likert scale, ranging from 0 (not true) to 2
(very true or often true), according to the behavior displayed over the last 6 months. Cron-
bach’s alphas were .87, .88, and .89 for internalizing, externalizing, and other problems,
respectively.

3 Results

3.1 Descriptive Statistics and Preliminary Analysis

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations among the study variables for the total sam-
ple are displayed in Table 1. As expected, satisfaction of the three psychological needs was
positively correlated with well-being indicators (i.e., life satisfaction and positive affect)
and negatively correlated with maladjustment indicators (i.e., externalizing, internalizing,
and other problems). Effect sizes were larger and positive between need satisfaction and
well-being and smaller and negative with maladjustment indicators. A similar pattern was
found for the frustration of each need: stronger and positive correlations were found with
maladjustment measures, whereas correlations were smaller and negative with well-being
measures. Further, the three subscales of autonomy, relatedness, and competence need sat-
isfaction were mutually positively correlated, as were the three scales of need frustration.
Satisfaction of each need was inversely correlated to frustration of the same need.
Scatterplots and univariate skewness and kurtosis statistics revealed mild departures
from normality in some variables. Therefore, Robust Maximum Likelihood estimator
(MLRχ2) was used to correct observed non-normality. The percentage of missing data
was < .05% for all items and, in total, there were .43% missing values in the dataset. Little’s

13


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Table 1  Descriptive and correlations between study variables
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Need satisfaction
1. Autonomy 1
2. Relatedness .40*** 1
3. Competence .46*** .35*** 1
Need frustration
4. Autonomy − .38*** − .23*** − .20*** 1
5. Relatedness − .36*** − .44*** − .28*** .38*** 1
6. Competence − .32*** − .18*** − .41*** .41*** .45*** 1
Psychological well-being
7. Life satisfaction .43*** .36*** .39*** − .30*** − .38*** − .40*** 1
8. Positive affect .41*** .31*** .45*** − .23*** − .28*** − .33*** .50*** 1
Psychological maladjustment
9. Externalizing problems − .22*** − .21*** − .27*** .25*** .30*** .27*** − .43*** − .18*** 1
10. Internalizing problems − .33*** − .22*** − .34*** .35*** .47*** .50*** − .48*** − .32*** .52*** 1
11. Other problems − .31*** − .23*** − .36*** .37*** .42*** .48*** − .47*** − .28*** .69*** .75*** 1
M 4.08 4.39 4.08 2.59 1.81 2.80 5.13 3.57 .36 .41 .47
SD .72 .57 .65 .85 .79 1.01 1.27 .75 .26 .27 .29

***p < .001
A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.
A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

Table 2  Goodness-of-fit indices for the three CFA hypothesized models of the BPNSFS-child version
Model MLRχ2 df CFI RMSEA SRMR ΔMLRχ2 Δdf

Model 1: Six-first order factor model 497.99 236 .95 .03 .04 – –
Model 2: Two-higher order factor model 631.55 244 .92 .04 .05 116.75*** 8
Model 3: Three-higher order factor model 666.08 242 .92 .04 .05 164.12*** 6

***p < .001

(1988) missing completely at random test (MCAR) was not significant, χ2(269) = 286.51,
p > .05, suggesting that the pattern of missing values was likely to be at random. As a
result, Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) was used to handle missing values.

3.2 Primary Analyses

The main hypotheses were tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equa-
tion modelling (SEM), and multigroup tests of model invariance using MPlus7 (Muthén
and Muthén 1998–2012). To evaluate the model fit a combination of indices was used.
These included the Chi square test, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI; Bentler 1990), the
Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA; Hu and Bentler 1999), and the
Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR). The χ2 should be as small as possible.
Adequate fit was indicated by CFI values of .90 or higher, combined with a RMSEA of .06
or lower, and a SRMR of .08 or lower (Kline 2010).
To compare nested models, the fit of each more parsimonious model (i.e., invariance
constraints imposed) was compared with the fit of the unrestricted model. As indicators of
model invariance, we examined the MLRχ2 difference test which should be non-significant,
as well as the change in CFI values which should be lower than .01 (Cheung and Rensvold
2002). The CFI change was weighted more heavily than the Chi square change, which is
substantially sensitive to small discrepancies in large samples. When full invariance was
not satisfied, partial invariance was explored. To determine the source of non-invariance,
modification indices were revisited and equality constraints imposed to the potential non-
invariant parameters were freed to vary between groups.

3.3 Validity Evidence for the BPNSFS‑Child Version

3.3.1 Dimensionality

Three CFAs (with correlated factors) were performed with the aggregated total sample.
Goodness-of-fit indices are summarized in Table  2. Following Chen et  al. (2015b), we
first tested a model with the items being organized in six first-order factors differentiating
between the satisfaction and frustration of each need (Model 1). Initial estimation of this
model yielded an adequate fit to the data, MLRχ2(237) = 566.30, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .04,
SRMR = .04. However, a large modification index of 68.60 suggested the possibility for
substantial content overlapping between Item 2 (“Most of the things I do, I do because I
have to”) and Item 20 (“I do the things I do every day because I have to, not because I want
to”). Given the similar item wording, it seemed meaningful to allow the error terms of
both items to correlate. The re-specified model fitted the data well and provided significant

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 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

better fit than the initial model (ΔMLRχ2(1) = 68.80, p < .001). Thus, all subsequent mod-
els included the estimation of this residual covariance parameter. All factor loadings were
statistically significant at p < .001 and standardized loadings ranged from .40 to .75 with a
mean of .56.
Next, the six first-order factor solution was compared with two alternative models:
a model with the composite constructs of need satisfaction and need frustration as two
second-order factors (Model 2) and a model with the composite constructs for autonomy,
relatedness, and competence as three second-order factors (Model 3). Based on fit indi-
ces, both models fit the data reasonably well. Nevertheless, sequential comparison between
models indicated that the best fitting model was that of six first-order factors (Model 1).

3.3.2 Reliability

The internal consistence of the BPNSFS-child version was α = .80 for the composite of
need satisfaction and α = .82 for need frustration. The scale also reached acceptable val-
ues for autonomy satisfaction (α = .70), relatedness satisfaction (α = .63), and competence
satisfaction (α = .72), as well as for autonomy frustration (α = .70), relatedness frustration
(α = .68), and competence frustration (α = .77).

3.3.3 Measurement and Structural Invariance

As a final step in providing validity evidence, measurement and structural invariance of

the BPNSFS-child version 6-factor solution was examined across gender (boys and girls),
age (early and middle adolescents), and participants’ SES (low, middle, and high family
SES according to the FAS ordinal scores). Using multigroup CFA, a series of increasingly
restrictive nested models with incremental invariant parameters was conducted (Cheung
and Rensvold 2002). We first tested configural invariance (i.e., no equality constraints
were imposed). The fit of this model served as the comparison standard for following tests.
For measurement invariance, we investigated weak invariance (i.e., equal factor loadings
across groups) and strong invariance (i.e., equal item intercepts in addition to previous
constraints). For structural invariance, we examined the invariance of factor variances and
covariances (i.e., equal factor variances and covariances in addition to previous constraints)
and the invariance of factor means (i.e., factor means set to 0 in both groups in addition to
previous constraints).
Table  3 shows the set of CFAs invariance tests across gender, age, and SES groups
based on the overall model fit for each model and the fit difference between each model and
the configural model. For gender invariance, the model with factor loadings constrained
to equality fitted the data as well as the unrestricted configural model. However, holding
intercepts equal across groups resulted in a substantial loss of fit. Modification indices
suggested that the estimated values for the intercepts of Items 11 (“I am good at what I
do”; 4.96 for boys and 4.43 for girls) and 23 (“I am good at difficult tasks”; 3.64 for boys
and 3.21 for girls) of competence satisfaction were not invariant. Thus, in the next step
these were freely estimated within each gender group. Only one re-specified parameter was
included at a time. According to the negligible change in the CFI, the model with partially
invariant item intercepts produced similar fit compared to the configural model. Constrain-
ing factor variances and covariances to equality across groups did not result in a signifi-
cant reduction in model fit. Therefore, partial measurement invariance and full structural
invariance across boys’ and girls’ groups were achieved. The comparison of latent factor

13
 Table 3  Goodness-of-fit indices for the invariance tests of the six-factor BPNSFS-child version across gender, age, and SES groups
Invariance level Model fit Model difference
2
MLRχ df RMSEA CFI SRMR Model comparison ΔMLRχ2 Δdf ΔCFI

Gender invariance
1. Configural model 744.05*** 472 .03 .94 .04 – – – –
2. Invariant loadings 791.27*** 490 .03 .94 .05 2 versus 1 46.16*** 18 − .004
3. Invariant intercepts 855.84*** 508 .04 .93 .06 3 versus 1 114.30*** 36 − .013
3.1. (Partial) invariant ­interceptsa 829.86*** 506 .03 .94 .06 3.1 versus 1 86.99*** 34 − .008
4. Invariant factor variances and covariances 828.07*** 527 .03 .94 .06 4 versus 1 109.57*** 55 − .009
5. Invariant factor means 918.23*** 533 .04 .93 .05 5 versus 1 174.03*** 61 − .020
5.1. (Partial) invariant factor ­meansb 862.14*** 532 .03 .94 .06 5.1 versus 1 117.94*** 60 − .010
Age invariance
1. Configural model 813.38*** 472 .04 .94 .05 – – – –
2. Invariant loadings 828.38*** 490 .04 .94 .05 2 versus 1 16.33 18 .000
A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

3. Invariant intercepts 859.21*** 508 .04 .94 .05 3 versus 1 45.49 36 − .002
4. Invariant factor variances and covariances 882.98*** 529 .04 .93 .05 4 versus 1 70.51 57 − .003
5. Invariant factor means 907.12*** 535 .04 .93 .06 5 versus 1 93.99 63 − .006
SES invariance
1. Configural model 1078.59*** 708 .04 .93 .05 – – – –
2. Invariant loadings 1114.69*** 744 .04 .93 .05 2 versus 1 38.91 36 .000
3. Invariant intercepts 1146.74*** 780 .04 .92 .06 3 versus 1 69.77 72 .001
4. Invariant factor variances and covariances 1195.24*** 822 .04 .92 .06 4 versus 1 120.18 114 .000
5. Invariant factor means 1225.68*** 834 .04 .92 .06 5 versus 1 149.26 126 − .004
a
 Intercepts of items 1 and 23 were not constrained to be equal across gender groups
b
 Factor means for Competence Frustration were not constrained to be equal across gender groups
***p < .001

13
 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

Autonomy

Life
Need .70*** Psychological satisfaction
Relatedness satisfaction well-being
Positive
affect
Competence .05 (ns)

-.75 *** -.33 ***

Autonomy Externalizing
-.18 (ns)
problems

Need .76** Psychological Internalizing

Relatedness frustration maladjustment problems

Other
Competence problems

Fig. 1  Latent variable modelling predicting psychological well-being and psychological maladjustment.

Dotted lines represent nonsignificant parameters. BPNSFS-child version item indicators and factor load-
ings of the indicators of the latent factors are not reported for presentation simplicity purposes. *p < .05;
**p < .01; ***p < .001

means suggested that girls scored significantly higher on competence frustration than boys
(difference = .47, SE = .06, p < .001 when factor means were fixed at 0 in the boys group).
For age and SES, all constraints were found to hold across groups as the Chi square differ-
ence tests between the successively restricted models were non-significant and none of the
CFI changes were close to the critical value of .01. Besides, there were no significant fac-
tor mean differences. Thus, these results indicated clear evidence of full measurement and
structural invariance across age and SES groups.

3.4 Main Hypotheses

3.4.1 Contributions of Need‑Based Experiences to Adolescents Well‑Being

and Psychological Maladjustment

In a stepwise approach, based on the adequate fit of the CFA model with two-higher
order factors, we first tested a SEM model with overall need satisfaction and need frustra-
tion modelled as predictors of psychological well-being and maladjustment (see Fig.  1).
The structural model demonstrated a satisfactory fit to the data, MLRχ2(364) = 1004.64,
CFI = .92, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .05. As illustrated in Fig.  1, need satisfaction was
uniquely related to well-being, while need frustration yielded a unique relation to malad-
justment. Cross-paths between need satisfaction and maladjustment, as well as, between

13
A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

need frustration and maladjustment were non-significant. Thus, they were not estimated in
later models.

3.4.2 Robustness of Need Based Dynamics

To gain a closer look into the unique contributions of the satisfaction and frustration of
each of the three separate needs, in a second step, the composite scores of need satisfac-
tion and need frustration were decomposed into their facet scores (autonomy, relatedness,
and competence). Each of these three factors was represented by a latent variable indexed
by the four items that loaded on each factor. To avoid multicollinearity, we modelled two
separate structural models with pathways from the satisfaction of each need to well-being
and with pathways from the frustration of each need to maladjustment. Multigroup SEM
was used to investigate the potential moderating role of gender (boys and girls), age (early
and middle adolescents), and participants’ SES (low, middle, and high SES according to
the FAS ordinal scores) in these relations. As recommended by Lippke et al. (2007) a con-
strained model, in which modelled regression paths in addition to factor loadings, factor
variances, and factor covariance were constrained to be invariant across groups, was com-
pared with an unconstrained model, in which these parameters were freely estimated across
groups.
The model involving need satisfaction predictors fitted the data adequately,
MLRχ2(71) = 214.45, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .04, with autonomy satisfac-
tion (β = .28, p < .001), relatedness satisfaction (β = .21, p < .001), and competence satis-
faction (β = .43, p < .001) being uniquely associated with adolescents’ well-being. Multi-
group analysis for gender revealed that the fully constrained model yielded an acceptable
fit, MLRχ2(161) = 315.37, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .08, although it was poorer
compared to the unconstrained model, ΔMLRχ2(20) = 51.27, p < .001, ΔCFI = − .013. Spe-
cifically, the structural regression path from autonomy need satisfaction to well-being was
significantly different between boys and girls. As a result, the equality constraint of this
specific path was lifted and the model was re-estimated. Whereas for girls, a significant
positive link was found between autonomy satisfaction and well-being (β = .39, p < .001),
this link was lower and non-significant for boys (β = .15, p > .05).1 This final model pro-
duced satisfactory fit to the data, MLRχ2(161) = 328.95, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .04,
SRMR = .08, which was not significantly different from the fit of the unconstrained model,
ΔMLRχ2(19) = 38.49, p < .001, ΔCFI = − .006. As for the moderating role of age and
SES, the fully constrained model for age, MLRχ2(162) = 346.35, CFI = .93, RMSEA = .05,
SRMR = .05, and SES, MLRχ2(253) = 447.26, CFI = .93, RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .07, ade-
quately fitted the data and the unconstrained model did not yield a superior fit for either
age, ΔMLRχ2(20) = 13.78, p > .05, ΔCFI = .004, or SES, ΔMLRχ2(40) = 57.88, p = .033,
ΔCFI = − .006, suggesting that the obtained results were equivalent for early and middle
adolescents and for adolescents from low, middle, and high SES families.
The need frustration model yielded an adequate fit to the data, MLRχ2(83) = 278.39,
CFI = .95, RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .04. Findings also showed that the frustration each

1
  A further exploration of the correlation between the latent scores of autonomy need satisfaction and well-
being in boys versus girls indicated that, in both genders, autonomy satisfaction was significantly correlated
with well-being, r = .53 (boys) and .73 (girls), ps < .001. Yet, when competing for unique variance in well-
being with the other two needs satisfaction, the substantial association observed at the correlational level
among boys dropped to non-significance, while remaining significant in the case of girls.

13
 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

need for autonomy (β = .15, p = .042), relatedness (β = .26, p < .001), and competence
(β = .32, p < .001) uniquely related to maladjustment. Multi-group analysis showed that
the fully constrained model for gender, MLRχ2(187) = 382.94, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .04,
SRMR = .05, age, MLRχ2(187) = 407.57, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .05, and
SES, MLRχ2(291) = 515.11, CFI = .95, RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .06, yielded a good fit
to the data. Moreover, these fit indices were not significantly worse than those obtained
for the unconstrained models of gender, ΔMLRχ2(21) = 45.34, p = .002, ΔCFI = − .006,
age, ΔMLRχ2(21) = 18.23, p > .05, ΔCFI = .002, or SES, ΔMLRχ2(42) = 38.90, p > .05,
ΔCFI = .002. Thus, gender, age, and SES did not moderate the effects of need frustration
on maladjustment.

4 Discussion

Research is increasingly documenting the health and well-being benefits stemming from
need satisfaction and the psychological adjustment costs deriving from need frustration
(Ryan and Deci 2017). Extensive research, mainly sampling adults, has proved that psy-
chological need-based experiences are essential for individuals from diverse cultures (e.g.,
Chen et  al. 2015b; Church et  al. 2012) regardless expressed need desire or need valua-
tion (Van Assche et  al. 2018). Yet, few studies have been undertaken to directly test the
robustness of these propositions among adolescents. This is unfortunate given the close
link between the developmental tasks that adolescents face, that is, the pursuit of greater
independence and self-reliance, the redefinition of social roles, and the handling of increas-
ing school demands, and SDT’s proposed psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness,
and competence. In addition, the validity evidence about the psychometric properties of a
measure to assess basic psychological needs in younger populations is scarce. Thus, the
present study aimed to extend SDT research on adolescence by conducting an in-depth
investigation of the child version of the most widely used measure to tap into need-based
dynamics, that is, the BPNSFS (Chen et  al. 2015b) before examining whether the pre-
sumed benefits associated with dynamics of need satisfaction and the costs of need frustra-
tion would hold across adolescents, independently of their gender, age, and SES.

4.1 Validity of the BPNSFS‑Child Version

Firstly, extending past work on the BPNSFS, results from CFA proved that the BPNSFS-
child version had the same factor structure as the original adult version (Chen et al. 2015b).
As hypothesized, the BPNSFS-child version could be best represented by six correlated
first-order factors, thereby distinguishing between the satisfaction and frustration of each
need. Notably, adequate fit was also obtained for the two-higher order models, with either
need satisfaction and need frustration or the three separate needs representing the second-
order factors. As such, a major advantage of this scale is that it provides some flexibility in
the way of investigating the contributions of need satisfaction and frustration, depending
on one’s central research interest.
A novel feature of the present study involved the examination of the measurement and
structural invariance of the BPNSFS-child version across several sociodemographic varia-
bles. Consistent with our hypotheses, the six-factor model was found to be invariant across
adolescents’ age and SES. However, some gender differences regarding competence satis-
faction and frustration were found.

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A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

Firstly, two non-invariant intercepts of competence satisfaction suggested that boys and
girls responded differently to the Items 11 (“I am good at what I do”) and 23 (“I am good
at difficult tasks”). Specifically, higher intercepts for boys than for girls indicate that boys
were scoring systematically higher than girls on competence satisfaction, or vice versa,
girls scoring lower than boys. These differences are congruent with earlier documented
gender differences in performance self-evaluations and achievement-related attributions.
Even though girls outperform boys in several achievement indicators, they generally show
less confidence in their abilities and are more modest when describing their achievements
(Beyer 1990; Pomerantz et al. 2001). Additionally, in terms of causal attributions of suc-
cess, while girls are more likely to rely on less stable and external factors such as effort or
luck, boys are more likely to attribute their success to more personal and stable attributes
such as ability (Beyer 1998; Mok et al. 2010). To the extent girls discount their achieve-
ments through making external attributions, experiences of accomplishment are less likely
to reinforce their feelings of competence, which may help to explain the observed gender
difference in the present study.
Secondly, a comparison of factor means across gender, age, and SES showed that boys
and girls, early and middle adolescents, as well as adolescents living in families with low,
middle and high SES experienced similar levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness
satisfaction and frustration. The only exception was for competence frustration, which was
higher for girls than for boys. This pattern of findings may be explained by gender differ-
ences in how failure situations are approached. Previous studies have shown that girls are
generally more concerned than boys with doing well to please or not disappointing others
(i.e., parents and teachers) (Pomerantz et al. 2002), which may amplify the distress associ-
ated with failure. Additionally, girls were found more likely to view failure as indicative of
poor abilities (Beyer 1998; Leaper 2015), which, together with their elevated risk for rumi-
nation (Pomerantz et al. 2002) could explain their vulnerability to competence frustration
documented in the present study.

4.2 Universal Nutrients and Vulnerability Factors

Our findings also contribute to the literature underlying the psychological drivers for adoles-
cents’ well-being and psychological adjustment problems. Strikingly consistent with previous
literature, results showed that whereas need satisfaction was solely related to well-being (i.e.,
life satisfaction and positive affect) but not to maladjustment, need frustration was uniquely
associated with maladjustment (i.e., externalizing, internalizing, and other problems) but not
well-being. Thus, this paper builds on past SDT theory and research (e.g., Bartholomew et al.
2011; Haerens et al. 2015; Sheldon and Gunz 2009; Verstuyf et al. 2013) providing further
support for the claim that need satisfaction and need frustration represent two related, yet dis-
tinct constructs, with each of them yielding fairly unique predictive validity. The need satisfac-
tion-frustration distinction appears fruitful in understanding the variation in adolescents’ well-
being but also their psychological adjustment problems. Indeed, if we had limited ourselves
to the assessment of need satisfaction as has been the case in many previous studies within
BPNT (e.g., Ahmad et al. 2013; Véronneau et al. 2005), we would not have been able to cap-
ture the variation in adolescents’ maladjustment. Yet, the additional inclusion of a measure
of need frustration indicated that the very thwarting of one’s psychological needs, entailing
experiences of internal conflict and pressure, inadequacy and failure, and loneliness and inter-
personal alienation, may put adolescents at risk for maladjustment. The incremental predictive
validity of need frustration underscores the theoretical claims that need frustration involves

13
 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

more than the mere deprivation of one’s needs and represents a vulnerability factor for malad-
justment (Vansteenkiste and Ryan 2013). Besides, the current findings stress the relevance of
future research to develop and test interventions that both foster need satisfaction with the aim
of promoting well-being and, at the same time, reduce the risks of need frustration to prevent
adolescents from experiencing psychological maladjustment. Such double-armed interven-
tions may appear more valuable for clinical practice than those focusing on either need-satis-
fying or need-frustrating experiences alone.
Decomposing the composite scores of need satisfaction and frustration into their facets,
follow-up analyses indicated that the satisfaction and frustration of each of the three basic psy-
chological needs was uniquely related to adolescents’ psychological well-being and malad-
justment, respectively. These findings are fully consistent with past work among non-clinical
(e.g., Cordeiro et al. 2016) and clinical populations (e.g., Campbell et al. 2017). Another novel
aspect of the current study involved the formal testing of the potentially moderating role of the
gender, age, and SES of adolescents. In many previous studies, these background characteris-
tics have been included as covariates to be controlled for (e.g., Ahmad et al. 2013; Boone et al.
2014; Campbell et al. 2017; Tian et al. 2014), with little theoretical attention being devoted
to them. Given the large sample of adolescents, we sought to test SDT’s universality claim
about the benefits associated with need satisfaction and the costs related to need frustration
(Deci and Ryan 2000) in a systematic way, by treating these three characteristics as potential
moderators (but see Lietaert et al. 2015). Across the 18 estimated contributions of need-based
functioning (three satisfactions and three frustrations by three moderators), gender, age, and
SES did not alter its predictive validity in 17 cases, with the one exception being the rela-
tion between autonomy need satisfaction and well-being. Thus, it is most safe to conclude that
experiences of need satisfaction are conducive to adolescent well-being and that experiences
of need frustration relate to psychological maladjustment among Spanish adolescents, whether
being boys or girls, early or middle adolescents, or coming from families with lower or higher
SES.
Yet, it should be noted that autonomy satisfaction contributed to well-being only among
girls. Although unexpected, this is not the first study that found only partial support for gender
invariance. Somewhat parallel to our results, prior work testing the tenets of SDT in the sport
setting showed that autonomy satisfaction and subjective well-being were stronger related
for girls than for boys (Adie et al. 2008). Future research might want to replicate this finding
and, in that case, answer the question why girls seem to benefit more from autonomy satis-
faction than boys. Thereby, it may be interesting to explore gender differences in the socio-
environmental conditions that foster or thwart basic psychological needs. For instance, previ-
ous studies have found girls to perceive their teachers as more autonomy-supportive than boys
(e.g., Lietaert et  al. 2015). Such differences may emerge because girls interpret socializing
behaviors in a more favourable way compared to boys or because socializing agents act dif-
ferently towards boys versus girls. In any case, before drawing any firm conclusions, the cur-
rent finding deserves replication. Additionally, in light of the intensification of gender-related
roles during adolescence (Hill and Lynch 1983), it may therefore be worthwhile to investigate
whether the gender differences observed herein would emerge in earlier or later developmental
stages.

4.3 Limitations and Future Research

Some limitations need to be acknowledged. First, although our results are in line with
the hypothesized sequence of associations proposed by SDT (Ryan and Deci 2000), the

13
A Bright and a Dark Path to Adolescents’ Functioning: The Role…

correlational nature of the data precludes any conclusions about the causality of the link
between the basic psychological needs and adolescents’ psychological well-being and mal-
adjustment. The adopted design allowed to examine how measures of need satisfaction and
frustration covaried with different indicators of psychological functioning across people
and groups of people (i.e., boys vs. girls; early vs. middle adolescents; adolescents com-
ing from families with low vs. middle vs. high SES) at a given point of time. Yet, to see
whether need-based dynamics are involved in the rise in well-being and maladjustment or
vice versa, longitudinal research would be particularly pertinent (e.g., Cordeiro et al. 2016).
Also, experimental work will allow examining which contextual factors causally impact on
adolescents’ experiences of need satisfaction and frustration (e.g., Mabbe et al. 2018).
Second, although we provide evidences about the generalizability of the dynamics that
relate need satisfaction and need frustration with adolescent psychological adjustment,
the fact that only early and middle adolescents were included in this study may limit the
value of the conclusions regarding the moderating role of age. Our findings are in line with
previous studies among college or university students (e.g., Chen et al. 2015b) suggesting
that need-based dynamics are similar across different adolescence stages. However, future
research should be performed to systematically explore the age equivalence by examining
the entire age range of adolescence (i.e., including early, middle, and late adolescents, and
emerging adults) and by specifically testing if the equality constraints hold across groups.
Also related with the SDT universality claim, this study only focused on the moderating
influences of some sociodemographic characteristics. So, in the future, it would be of inter-
est to investigate other personality and dispositional traits that could explain variance in
need-based dynamics during adolescence. Although one can expect adolescents to gener-
ally suffer from need frustration, the type of cost as well its strength may depend on adoles-
cents’ personality (Mabbe et al. 2016). Similarly, some adolescents may be more sensitive
to the benefits of need satisfaction and a need-supportive environment (Mouratidis et  al.
2011).
Fourth, in this study we relied on participants’ self-reported measures in which adoles-
cents were asked about their experiences over the last week or months. Although it may be
a reliable source of information to capture how individuals generally feel, overall feelings
may be influenced by how the individual feels at the assessment time and any observed
association may be driven by shared method variance. Using repeated observations com-
bined with a multiple informant perspective (i.e., teachers, parents, peers) could be a good
approximation to disengage the state affects from the trait reports (Brose et  al. 2013) as
well as to reduce the same-source bias (Ahmad et al. 2013).
Finally, the positive and negative outcomes considered were based on measures of the
individual subjective well-being and psychological maladjustment. Future research may
want to conceptualize optimal and non-optimal functioning from a broader socio-ecologi-
cal perspective (e.g., education, sports, interpersonal relations, etc.) to provide a fuller pic-
ture of the multiple influences of need-based dynamics on adolescents’ development.

5 Conclusions

Notwithstanding these limitations, the current study contributes to extent SDT-based

research and intervention in several important ways. First, it has provided evidence about
the adequate internal structure of the BPNSFS-child version, which strengthens the confi-
dence in the meaningfulness and validity of the scale. According to SDT basic assumption,

13
 A. Rodríguez‑Meirinhos et al.

evidence of this study also suggests that both the satisfaction and frustration of each need
actively contribute to the psychological functioning of adolescents, yet in different ways.
Thus, including both components in diagnostic evaluations is needed to capture the varia-
bility in adolescents’ adaptive and maladaptive functioning. This distinction may also guide
prevention and intervention programs to simultaneously promote psychological growth and
prevent or reduce adjustment problems. That is, adolescents may be encourage to seek out
contexts, activities, and peers that are conducive to the satisfaction of their psychological
needs, while avoiding those that entail experiences of need frustration (see Weinstein et al.
2016). The active mobilization of adolescents’ inclination and capacity to craft their own
need-satisfying experiences rather than being merely dependent upon contextual need sup-
ports may help to uplift their well-being. Finally, the fact that the correlates of adolescents’
need-based dynamics were largely independent of the studied sociodemographic variables
adds to and helps expand the body of research supporting the claim that basic psychologi-
cal needs are universally critical nutriments for optimal functioning.

Funding  This study was funded by a research grant awarded to the first author by the Spanish Ministerio de
Educación y Formación Profesional (FPU 14/02888).

Compliance with Ethical Standards 

Conflict of interest  All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval  All procedures involving human participants in this study were in accordance with the ethi-
cal standards of the (blinded for review) research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its
later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent  Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in
the study.

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